At the time of growing economic competition between the superpowers, including the European Union and China, the Central Asia (CA) region, comprising the countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, is gaining
special importance. In recent years, it is in particular China that has been very active in this region, also due to the implementation of its flagship Belt and Road Initiative. The purpose of the article is: 1) to establish the importance of the EU and China as export markets for goods from the countries of Central Asia, 2) to determine the competitive profiles of CA countries, 3) to identify potential areas of cooperation and/or competition in CA countries’ trade relations with the EU and China.
The article shows that the international trade competitiveness of CA countries is relatively low and very limited to the structure of their comparative advantages. Yet, being complementary to one another, the comparative advantages possessed by the CA countries and by the EU and China provide grounds to assume that there are objective premises for the development and intensification of mutual trade cooperation, which will be beneficial to each of the parties concerned.