The paper addresses the concept of trade neutrality of contemporary trade policy through embarking upon the case of Mongolia – the sole country within the World Trade Organisation regime which did not sign any preferential or  regional trade agreement. The author attempts to clarify theoretical foundations of trade neutrality, its reasons and preconditions applying the perspective of the international political economy according to which relations between market and government are determined by the structures of power within the global politics. Empirical analysis of the Mongolian case covers the period 2001–2011 and is mainly focused on presenting the geographical and  commodity structure of exports and imports assuming that these issues settle directions both of diplomatic efforts devised within the foreign policy as well as the choice of strategic options for trade policy of a small country.