MERCHANDISE TRADE IN THE EAEU INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENT

Olena Hrechyshkina, Maryia Samakhavets QUAESTIONES GEOGRAPHICAE 38(4) • 2019 MERCHANDISE TRADE IN THE EAEU INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENT Olena Hrechyshkina1, Maryia Samakhavets2 1 Economic Faculty, Historical and Cultural Heritage Department, Polessky State University, Pinsk 2 Banking Faculty, Finance Department, Polessky State University, Pinsk Manuscript received: July 24, 2019 Revised version: August 31, 2019 Hrechyshkina O., Samakhavets M., 2019. Merchandise trade in the EAEU integrating environment. Quaestiones Geographicae 38(4), Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznań, pp. 163–174. 7 figs, 3 tables. Abstract: The paper aims to identify the main trends and recommendations for the development of merchandise trade in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) integrating environment through the analysis of its mutual and foreign (internal and external) merchandise trade. The study is based on the official statistical data for 2014–2018 and economic comparisons and systematisation (including geographical systematisation). The results show that the intensification of mutual and foreign trade in the EAEU is possible by stimulating consumer and industrial demand, enhancing exports of high tech products and diversifying exports, and strengthening the cooperation within the EAEU and with other countries and integration associations. Key words: integrating environment, EAEU, merchandise trade, mutual trade, foreign trade. Corresponding author: Olena Hrechyshkina, Historical and Cultural Heritage Department, Polessky State University, Dneprovskoy Flotilii Street, 23, Pinsk, 225710, Republic of Belarus; phone: +375444738943; e-mail: Introduction The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was established during the regional economic integrating processes in 2014 (Eurasian Economic Union 2014). The EAEU ensures a free movement of goods, services, capital and labour, as well as coordinated, coherent and unified economic policies. A macroeconomic impact of establishing the EAEU is manifested in various aspects, including price reduction on merchandise, promotion of competition, an increase in production, the development of regional economic ties, encouragement to technological development, and an increase in market capacity and GDP (National Bank of the Republic of Belarus n.d.). The Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation are the EAEU member states. The economic integration between these countries has been going on since the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR) (since 1991). However, it was the EAEU, which logically replaced the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC, existed from 2001 to 2014), that marked the new stage in economic integration in the post-Soviet space. Nevertheless, traditionally, the first stage of international integration is the creation of a free trade zone. Thus, at present, the development of trade relations within the EAEU integrating environment has already been the most intensive. © 2019 Author(s) This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license doi: 10.2478/quageo-2019-0038 ISSN 0137-477X, eISSN 2081-6383 164 Olena Hrechyshkina, Maryia Samakhavets The importance of foreign trade in the economies of the EAEU member states is confirmed by the world ratings. In particular, positions of the EAEU member states regarding “Trading across Borders” in “Doing Business 2019” are the following: Armenia – 46, Belarus – 25, Kazakhstan – 102, Kyrgyzstan – 70, Russian Federation – 99 (World Bank Group 2019). Thus, in a dynamically changing EAEU integrating environment, the position of Belarus regarding “Trading across Borders” is quite strong among the EAEU member states. It has improved by five positions since 2017 (World Bank Group 2019) as several reforms for further development of foreign trade have been implemented (Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus 2018). The theoretical background for the study is the scientific papers on the economic integration within the EAEU and the development of the foreign economic activity of the EAEU member states. During the last decade, a large number of academic writings were devoted to the general issues of integrating the relations of the EAEU member states (Viartsinskaya 2013; Ziiaddulaev 2014; Daineko, Beresnev 2015; Ivanova 2015; Tsukarev 2015; Vinokurov 2015; Presniakova et al. 2017; Viartsinskaya 2018; Zhuravleva, Tutaeva 2018; Jumanova 2019; Nurmatov 2019; Zelenkov et al. 2019). Some studies are devoted to the problems of trade relations of the EAEU member states with each other (Nurtasova et al. 2018; Kuskov, Paderina 2019; Spanov, Arbashiyeva 2019) and with third countries (Selisheva 2017; Bojcova, Fedorenko 2019). The development experience of other integration associations is worth noting. As far as the Asia-Pacific region is concerned, much research is devoted to the further trade liberalisation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) (Scollay, Gilbert 2000; Robinson, Thierfelder 2002; Choi 2017), as well as the evolution of and trade trends in this association (Basu Das, Kawai 2016; Hur, Lee 2017; Solis, Wilson 2017). Concerning the European integration, there are also numerous relevant works in the field of the European Union (EU) foreign trade. These studies are mainly based on the gravity model and are divided logically into 2 types: those dedicated to the intra-EU trade (Badinger, Breuss 2004; Kox et al. 2004; Shin, Serlenga 2007) and the EU trade with other countries (Brenton, Manchin 2003; Antonucci, Manzocchi 2006; Mandelson 2006; Pastore et al. 2009; Bourdet et al. 2007; Gavin, Sindzingre 2008; Kehoe et al. 2019). The relevance of the study is justified by the need to improve economic relations within the EAEU in achieving the official goal of its establishment. This goal is to increase the competitiveness of national economies and create conditions for stable development to enhance the living standards of the EAEU member states. At the same time, the trade relations within the EAEU and with third countries in a changing EAEU integrating environment are the most rapidly developing segments of integration and the basis for intensifying the integrating processes. The authors pay attention to the fact that the creation of the EAEU in 2014 and its subsequent development has a definite effect on the merchandise trade and therefore consider the EAEU integrating environment as a factor influencing it. At the same time, the dynamics of the merchandise trade development among the EAEU member states can also affect the degree of integration between them. Therefore, given the importance of merchandise trade in the EAEU integrating environment, the purpose of the paper is to identify the main trends in and recommendations for the development of merchandise trade in the EAEU integrating environment using a detailed analysis of economic indicators (...truncated)