Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food - Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Abstract
For small economies, as in the case of the Republic of Macedonia, international trade presents a very important element in balancing the national supply and demand. International trade, at the same time, is a major component of the globalization process, where countries should make efforts to reduce barriers to trade and make their economies more open to foreign competition. The aim of this article is to test if the OECD’s method can be applied for analyses of the international trade of the Republic of Macedonia as well. This article is focused on the trade of apples, where countries are compared by using statistical indicators to depict their position in the international economic integration. The results show that the trade balance of apples in Macedonia has a high positive value, confirming that the export of apples significantly exceeds the import. It is obvious that the country is net exporter. The results also reveal that Macedonian apple producers are primarily export oriented.The main conclusion is that this method is applicable for analysis of trade in the Republic of Macedonia, but if the indicators are compared between different countries, the results should be interpreted cautiously since data are based on different databases
