Foreign Trade of the Czech Republic after Ten Years of Membership in the European Union

The paper deals with the foreign trade of the Czech Republic after its entrance into the European Union (EU). The main intention is to find the changes that occurred in the volume and the structure of foreign trade in the period of 2004-2012. The analysis is carried out by using mathematical-statistical methods and indexes. The results of the analysis show that the membership of the Czech Republic in the EU had a positive influence on foreign trade, because the Czech Republic is a small open economy. Although some changes in the geographical composition of Czech trade in the monitored period were found, free access to the EU's internal market with about half a billion people is the most important for Czechia. The Czech comparative advantage is obvious in the export of machinery and transport equipment for the whole time, while other manufactured goods contributed to the trade balance very variably.