Trade patterns inside the single market

Single Market Review:
During 1997 EUR-OP and Kogan Page have been progressively publishing the titles in the major new series Single Market Review. This is a set of thirty nine volumes detailing the results of an exercise undertaken by the European Commission in 1996 assessing the progress made in implementing the Single Market Programme (SMP). The thirty nine volumes look at specific business sectors or Single Market issues, plus a business survey. Each report has been compiled by leading subject experts and co-ordinated by the Commission.

The first titles published in the series were described in 'Recent publications of interest' in European Access, No.3, 5 and 6, 1997. Recently, there has been a positive flood of new titles, brief details of which are noted below.

European Commission, DG XV/II
Trade patterns inside the single market
The Single Market Review, Subseries IV:
Impact on Trade and Investment, Vol.2
EC/Kogan Page, 1997
ISBN: 92-827-8797-4(EC)/ 0-7494-2331-5(Kogan Page)
EC, No.C1-70-96-002-EN-C
Price: € 54.00/ £45.00

The implicit assumption behind many predictions about the impact of the SMP was that the removal of the remaining barriers to the mobility of goods would translate into an increase in trade flows within the Community, and that most of the increase would be of the intra-industry type, i.e. simultaneous exports and imports within industries.

This study addresses the questions: what evolution of intra-EU trade patterns can be observed over 1980-94? Has the completion of the Single Market been associated with increased trade flows among Member States on an inter-industry or intra-industry basis? In case of an increase in intra-industry trade, does it concern mostly horizontally or vertically differentiated goods? On which quality segments are the Member States positioned?