Lietuvos žemės ūkio ir maisto produktų eksporto tendencijas sąlygojantys veiksniai

There are plenty of different investigated and not yet identified factors that affect foreign trade trends. Some of them increase the volume of trade, while others – reduce. Factors, by their nature (operating principles), can be divided into economical, political and marketing. This article will discuss the economic factors that affect the export of agricultural and food products. Most Lithuanian the authors examine the specific export factors (competitiveness, innovation, foreign direct investment, subsidy, etc.) impact on export volumes, often factors are identified as individuals regardless of their mutual relations. Tinbergen, in 1962, was the first one who introduced empirically strong ―gravity‖ model explaining the value of foreign trade flows. In General. The gravity model predicts that trade flows between two countries are inversely related to the physical distance between them and directly related to the multiplicative interaction of each country‘s size, which is measured by GDP. The „gravity― model has been used for assessing trade policy implications and, particularly recently, for analyzing the effects of Free Trade Agreements on international trade. In Lithuania the „gravity" was used to justify the lack of foreign direct investment (FDI) to business.