Features and Trends in Mutual Trade between Bulgaria and the Western Balkans Countries

The countries of South East Europe (SEE) are heterogeneous as economic and political systems, levels of economic and social developme nt and attitudes and relationships with major business units in the international system. Their attitude towards cooperation possibilities - either on a bilateral or multilateral basis in the region, is also different. This paper considers the simplest form of economic cooperation between Bulgaria and its neighboring Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro) - mutual trade. On the basis of statistical data on foreign trade of Bulgaria and the mentioned countries in the past year, the author analyzes the major trends in multilateral trade and calculates four related-to-trade indices that determine the importance of intra-regional trade for each of these countries. Bilateral trade between Bulgaria and the analyzed countries is traditionally with a positive trade balance for the country. The aim of this study is to analyze how large the volume of this trade is and whether there are opportunities to increase it. The author’s hypothesis is that there is an untapped potential for the expansion of foreign trade of Bulgaria with these countries. In order to check this, the author adopts the following methodology: she presents in short the historical development of Bulgarian foreign trade with these countries (since 1989), examines the legal framework of trade relations between them and the impact of Bulgaria’s EU membership on mutual trade; after that she analyses the current state of mutual trade in the region, based on statistical data and calculates indices of trade openness and regional trade concentration for each of the countries; finally, she draws conclusions about the current state of trade and the potential for its expansion by the Bulgarian business.