Exploring the Interaction between Foreign Direct Investment and International trade with a Focus on CEECs.

Our research reveals the impact of foreign direct investment on the intensity of bilateral trade in the Central Eastern European (CEE) region, focusing on countries of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Estonia (CEE-6). Previous literature and research results indicate that there is a complementary or substitute relationship between FDI and trade. However, the studies of this subject on the CEE region are scarce. Our study employs the gravity model to analyze the impact of FDI on bilateral trade with panel data of each country from 2005 to 2019. Based on the panel data, we investigate the commercial integration among CEE-6 and with main EU commercial partners. Our results suggest a prevalence of complementary relationships in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, yet each country demonstrates the relationship through different facts. The complementary relationship is attributed to the prevalent vertical FDI in CEECs, especially in the automotive industry. However, Estonia displays a substitutive relationship between outward FDI and trade. Moreover, we find the commercial integration only exists among the Visegrad group