Evidence on Euromediterranean Trade Integration:The Case of German Olive Oil Imports

摘要

The deepening of the Barcelona Agreement and thediscussions of the creation of a Mediterranean Unionhas awakened the interest of the non-EU Mediterraneancountries to expand their exports to the Europeanmarkets. This study analyses the factors thatinfluence the German imports of olive oil by employinga gravity model. The results of two random-effectsmodels corrected for serial correlation and heteroskedasticitysuggest that being a MediterraneanPartner Country of the European Union has the highestimpact on trade flows to Germany, thus supportingfurther Euromediterranean trade integration. Moreover,olive oil exports to Germany are positively relatedto the existence of direct marketing channels andto tourism. Therefore, these valuables should be exploredmore in the future by the Mediterranean countriesso as to boost their exports.