Central Asia's transport cost burden and its impact on trade

This paper examines the role of transportation costs in causing the countries of Central Asia to generate far less trade with the European Union (EU) than their relative location would suggest. Based on data collected from transport professionals, it detects a sharp increase in the transportation costs and time at Warsaw, moving east from the EU towards the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In the case of Central Asia, border-crossing problems, low traded volumes and trade imbalance, inter alia, seem to be major explanations of the unexpected low trade level between Central Asia and the EU.