COMPETITIVENESS OF DAIRY PRODUCTS EXPORT TO RUSSIA AND ALTERNATIVE MARKETS

In order to protect certain sectors, Russia has introduced some new protectionist measures for EU agricultural products such as meat and dairy products. Russia is a member of WTO for four years, but is still not respecting its WTO commitments concerning the liberalisation of trade regime. The research was conducted in order to measure the level of competitiveness of Lithuanian dairy products in trade with Russia and in alternative markets. Measuring the competitiveness, International competitiveness index in the specific (local) region (LIIC) was used. The research has found an increase in the competitiveness of export of dairy products in EU-28 countries and countries outside the EU markets. The results differed by level of competitiveness among two groups of countries. In the period of analysis, LIIC index was higher in the first group than in the second group of EU countries.