O Comércio Ibérico e o Comércio Portugal-UE: que diferenças?

Abstract

After joining the EC Portugal experienced a big change in its external trade: there was a huge growth in the trade balance deficit and Spain, a less important partner, became Portugal's major one. In order to understand if either the Portuguese economy tends to a more peripheral location inside Europe or if there is a convergence with both the Iberian neighbour and the more developed EU contries, it is made a comparison between the caracteristics of Portuguese trade flows with both partners. Iberian trade is more uneven than Portugal-EU trade due mainly to an earlier and greater move of Spanish companies to the Portuguese market. This is a change from the beginning of 1990's, when Iberian intra-industry trade was mainly made of goods with similar quality. But in spite of the deficit, it seems that Portugal-EU and Spain-EU trade became more similar.International trade; Trade pattern; Quality of traded goods; Portugal