Old and New Arguments for Free Trade: The Western Balkans

Antevski, Miroslav and Dimitrijević, Duško (2013) Old and New Arguments for Free Trade: The Western Balkans. In: Challenges of the 21st Century and the Region : [proceedings of the round table conference, 11 September 2012, Belgrade]. Institute for International Politics and Economics, Belgrade, pp. 180-193. ISBN 978-86-7067-190-4

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Abstract

The author discusses an old theoretical and political issue: free trade. Arguments for and against free trade have changed little in the last two centuries, and will keep their actuality in the future. Their bases are national interests of the countries and nations in a given period, and representatives of liberalism and protectionism in international trade have changed their places in history. There are a lot empirical evidences, in the medium and long run, that open national economy and liberalization of international trade have a positive impact on the growth of competitiveness, entrepreneurship and economic growth. In contrast to many regions, the Western Balkans has experienced disintegration in the last two decades, and a significant decline in economic performances of the national economies. Previous experience has shown that liberalization of regional trade and regional trade agreement CEFTA can contribute to economic reintegration of the region, faster integration with the European Union, stimulate economic growth, improving competitiveness and entrepreneurship.

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