The latest enlargement of the EU and 'buy national' rules

This paper presents a variety of indicators which reflect the extent of protection of individual manufacturing industries in ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe by the 'Buy National'rules in public procurement. Eight countries joined the EU in 2004 and the two remaining countries will become full members in 2007. Combining these data with information on the current international competitiveness of each individual industry, the paper identifies those industries that are likely to be particularly sensitive to the abolition of 'Buy National'rules due to their recent accession to the European Union. Two series of indicators are proposed to measure the impact of 'Buy National'policies. The first series outlines the behaviour of the public sector vis-à-vis domestic production and imports. The second series of indicators sketches the industrial structure of the sectors which, following the above analysis, seem to be protected by preferential public procurement. The interaction of both series of indicators can provide information about the extent of protection in terms of public procurement on a sectoral level and about its impact on domestic production. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.