43 In all, only Estonia and Hungary have made large strides among CEEC in developing production capacities within the 'office machinery equipment' network. Their trade profiles seem to suggest different patterns of specialization. Hungary has comparative advantage in both assembling and the manufacture of parts, whereas Estonia only in the latter. This may suggest that Hungarian firms are more involved in a larger number of stages of production including both the manufacture of parts and the assembly of final products. Note also that Hungary's imports of final products fell in terms of value. It is thus likely that assembled final products have had import-substitution effect. Indeed, the share of Estonian parts in EU external imports declined from 0.52 percent in 1997 to 0.36 percent in 1998 but in exports remained flat at 0.14 percent in both years.

# _Telecommunication and 'audio/visual " equipment network_

Trade within the telecommunication and 'audio/visual' network expanded rapidly for all CEEC. Each country increased its share of both 'final' products and components in EU external imports, albeit most from very low levels (Table 17). EU exports to CEEC-10 also increased faster between 1993 and 1998 than to the rest of the world. Hungary is by far the largest exporter among CEEC accounting for more than half of aggregate CEEC exports of final products, components and parts in 1998. But some other countries are catching up despite an almost 40 percent increase in the value of Hungarian exports to the EU in 1998.

Table **17:** Trade in telecommunications and recording equipment, **1993, 1997** and **1998** (million of US dollars and percent)

||**Czec**|**h Rep**|**ublic |**|<br>**E**|**stonia**||**H**|**ungar**|**y**<br>**l**|**P**|**oland**|<br>**|**|**C**|**EEC-1**|**0**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Commodity and<br>parts<br>|1993<br>j[_|1997|1998||1993|1997|1998|1993|1997|1998|1993<br>_<br>_|1997<br> <br>_<br>_|19981<br>_<br>_|1993<br>_<br>_<br>_|1997<br> <br>_<br>_<br>_|1998<br> <br>_<br>_|
|Exports of final<br>products|10|35|85|0|38|168|37|845|1,219|10|323|561|81|1,295|2,094|
|Exports of parts<br>and components<br>Imports of parts<br>and components<br>Final exports<br>minus imports of<br>parts/ components|20<br>96<br>-85|107<br>319<br>-284|142<br>249<br>-164|2<br> <br>2<br>-2|50<br>157<br>-119|46<br>242<br>-74|186<br>262<br>-225|<br>314<br>638<br>208|394<br>802<br>417|74<br>187<br>-177|280<br>542<br>-219|276<br>593<br>-32|299<br>675<br>-594|881<br>2,112<br>-817|1,024<br>2,338<br>-244|
|Final products<br>imports|122|423|378|3|95|106|114|<br>276|362|239|707|891|606|1,996|2,429|
|Memo: share (in pe|rcent)|of||||||||||||||
|Manufactures<br>exports to EU<br>Manufactures<br>imports from EU<br>Overall Balance|0.6<br>3.0<br>-188|1.2<br> <br>4.7<br>-600|1.5<br>3.8<br>-400|1.5<br> <br>2.3<br> <br>-2|9.1<br>11.9<br>-165|17.4<br>14.2<br>-134|5.4<br> <br>5.6<br>-153|10.3<br>6.8<br>246|11.0<br> <br>7.5<br> <br>449|1.3<br>4.1<br>-342|4.9<br>5.11<br>-646|5.8<br>5.5<br>-647|1.6<br>3.8<br>-901|<br>4.1<br> <br>5.4<br>-1,932|4.8<br> <br>5.6<br>-1,649|

Source: Computations based on EU data in UN COMTRADE Statistics.