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• Western Balkans: Opportunities for Agriculture on the Eve of EU Accession

  52-73

  Tamas Mizik

  Views:

  156

  The Western Balkan countries can be characterised by their shared goal, which is to achieve the quickest accession to the European Union. Agriculture is an important obstacle to achieving this goal. The role of agriculture differs widely among the countries analysed but is more important than the average of the EU. This study gives a comprehensive overview of the most important agricultural indicators. These indicators allow us to acquire a precise picture of the sector’s relevance, production structure, efficiency and international relations. After demonstrating changes in input use, production structure, prices, terms of trade and agricultural policies, the next section identifies some of the reasons for these changes. The analysis concentrates on the most recent years for which data is available. In the last few years Serbia became the leading producer and the only net exporter of agricultural goods in the region. Nevertheless, the current situation is endangered by several issues, such as imbalanced sectoral production, fragmented production structure, relatively low yields, unfavourable export composition, and poor food hygiene and quality control, which anticipate painful and difficult measure which need to be carried out.

  JEL classification: Q15, Q17, Q18

• The probable impact of policies and policy measures on globalisation

  49-72

  Miklós Losoncz

  Views:

  162

  This paper aims to identify the impact of the recent economic and non-economic shocks on the globalisation of trade in terms of trade policy and structural openness, and to take a side in the discussion about the reversal, the slowdown, and the continuation of trade globalisation. The report argues that geopolitical decisions based on pure political priorities and different macro- and micro-policies may
  harm trade globalisation temporarily. Nevertheless, in the long run, underlying
  economic factors, such as decreasing trade costs and expanding services trade remain the critical driving forces of globalisation. The speed of the process is likely
  to be slower than before, and its characteristics are different. With weakening multilateralism and increasing fragmentation, the emerging global world order will be suboptimal from the point of view of economic efficiency. 

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: F01, F02, F13, F60.