Role of trade with the Eastern neighbours of Poland in the local economy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the current role of trade with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in the local economy of East Poland. It is assumed that the importance of trade with neighbouring countries can be expressed through: (a) export of goods that are made in a given spatial unit to the markets of adjacent countries; (b) providing service for the needs of transit traffic, including in particular the freight traffic generated by Polish foreign trade; (c) small-scale, unregistered trade along the border areas. The research study focuses mainly on the four borderland voivodships. The analysis shows that after the years 2003/2004 in East Poland there has been a declining importance of the borderland location as a stimulus factor which contributes to intensive interactions with the neighbouring countries. The role of trade of goods with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in the economy of borderland regions is becoming ever less important and ever more spatially selective. The advantages derived from trans-border traffic services are increasingly evident in the border crossings leading into Lithuania and Ukraine, with a rather declining significance of those crossings with Belarus. The advantages linked to peddling small items are mainly concentrated in the border gminas (communes) that are located in the close neighbourhood of the border crossings.At the same time, however, risks related to trade of goods are playing ever more important role, since excessive concentration of exporters to the markets of the neighbouring countries may pose a threat of “importing” the crisis. Intensive transit of goods generates considerable external costs, while trans-border illegal trading is increasingly becoming an unfair trade for local entrepreneurs.