Competitiveness of beef cattle sector of V4 countries within EU foregin trade

Mészáros, Kornélia

Keywords: competitiveness, export, import, effects of EU accession

This paper looks at the competitiveness of the foreign trade of beef and beef cattle of V4 countries within EU27. The analyses cover live cattle and chilled-frozen beef. The indicators which examine export and import together (Relative trade advantage - RTA, Relative competitiveness - RC) show a competitive advantage until 2009 in all examined countries. There is a competitive disadvantage from 2010 in Hungary and from 2011 in Slovakia. The indicator which examines only exports (Balassa-index, Logarithm of the relative export advantage – lnRXA) shows a competitive advantage only in Poland after the EU accession. The fourth applied indicator was the Modified unit value different (MUVD) index which marks negative values after the EU accession in the examined countries. That means the average price of imports was higher than the average price of exports. The negative trend of the MUVD indicator is established in V4 countries especially after the financial crisis in 2008. This concerned all examined countries and the most negative effect was in Hungary which is illustrated by poor values of competitiveness indicators. However the increase in the MUVD indicator in 2011 offers hope for the foreign trade of the Hungarian beef sector.

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