Foreign Trade Activities between the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic

The process of transition in former central planning economies is closely related to the structure changes in the production base of national economy. Successful management of this process then affects international competitiveness of the country. Foreign trade is one of the most common parts of international economic activities of the national economy. Its commodity structure reflects the international competitiveness of the country. General features of the foreign trade policy of the former Czech and Slovak Federative Republic before 1990s reflected the central planning character of the national economy. Foreign trade activities were limited towards western countries. After the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, its foreign trade policy became much more open and liberalistic. In the first years, the Slovak Republic implemented certain actions of the protectionist trade policy in order to face international competitive pressures. As a member of the main international economic organizations, the Slovak Republic followed liberalization trends in its foreign trade policy. Economic activities between the Slovak and the Czech Republic have become significant up to the present days. Economic development and transition process in both countries affect the proportions of export and import of goods and services considering their volume and commodity structure through the time. In this paper we analyze main features of the trade activities between the Slovak and the Czech Republic. We focus on trends in development of export and import of goods and services considering the commodity structure of both of them. After that, we conclude our investigations about the developments in their bilateral trade activities.