Considering the relatively small economy and internal market of Latvia on an international scale, as well as its limited resources, economic cooperation with other countries plays an important role in developing Latvia's sustainable national economy. Hence, external economic relations and integration of the country into the international economy have been promoted since the beginning of 1990 by implementing gradual reforms and developing collaboration with foreign partners.
Within this process, crucial significance is attributed to Latvia's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 10 February 1999 and its accession to the European Union (EU) on 1 May 2004, thus becoming a full-fledged member of the multilateral trading system and EU Single Market. Additionally, Latvia received an invitation from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to become the 35th member of the organization on 11th May 2016.
Despite the achievements up till now considering current processes, work on reducing trade barriers in export markets and deepening economic relations with partner countries takes place both within bilateral and international frameworks.