【正文】 g the limits in production resources, respectively the efficiency of their use (with regard to the internal market scope). Therefore, it is possible to correct through import of certain products the limits given both 16 by the natural conditions (insufficient raw materials resources, limited area, soil and climatic conditions) and the economic conditions (production costs of the home production are relatively high regarding the given scope of the home market). Transformation impact of foreign trade is of growing importance also with regard to the increasing economic level of the country, which brings about a considerable growth of the differentiation of needs. At the same time, a more developed economy is characteristic by the production specialisation growth, that is by the efficient narrowing of the produced assortment, what at the simultaneous widening of the consumption assortment asks necessarily for the increased import (in this sense, import is understood as the manifestation of the other pole of specialisation, that is the socalled passive specialisation). The influence of external economic relationships through the transformation of production factors on the international level enables to overe the home limits in the disponibility of these factors or with regard to a certain time frame. For example, a contemporary use of foreign labor, import of the specialised equipment enabling an accelerated start of the home production means utilisation, the use of foreign credits for extending the home resources in the given period etc. All this means the potential positive impact of foreign trade (resp. external economic relationships) on the fluency of the home reproduction process. Transformation impact of foreign trade in time diversifies its factual content, it still more moves from the exchange of final products to the international exchange of the individual production phases outputs (the shift from the product specialisation to the individual parts specialisation). As a higher type of the transformation impact of external economic relationships on the national economy, there is regarded the socalled transmission function. While the basic transformation function is the tool of the home production and home resources substitution by import of modities or drawing of the foreign production factors, the transmission function is the tool of the transfer of information, criteria and stimuli from the external environment into the home economy for the utilisation in the home subjects decisionmaking processes. This transmission function is labelled by some authors as the process of “l(fā)earning from abroad“ in the widest sense and it is regarded as the most dynamic and important impact of the external economic relationships on the individual countries economy during the last decades of the world economy development. FACTOR OF ECONOMIC GROWTH Further of the general reasons of incorporating the country into the international division of labour through the international foreign trade exchange is reaching savings of the national labour used, in other words, fulfilling the principle of time economy. From the growth effect viewpoint, there is important the structure of the home production and home resources substitution by the import of modities or the utilisation of foreign resources. Applying the economy of time principle on the international scale is the source of increasing growth rates over the development possibilities in the frame of the isolated national economy. Growth function of foreign trade is connected to forming of the specialisation profile of the economy, and that namely in the relatively small economies, where the structure of home economy is influenced considerably by the export efficiency and petitiveness of the given country products in international markets. THE MEASURE AND SHAPE OF THE ECONOMY OPENNESS Among the basic characteristics of the level of the economy openness towards its external environment, there belongs usually the share of foreign trade (export, import, turnover) in the total economic activity of the relevant economic entity. Another characteristics are those expressing the structure of the export and import flows, labelled often as the shape of openness. Besides the quantitative viewpoints of the measure and shape of the economy openness, there is important also the aspect of its efficiency as the expression of the level of the national labour evaluation in the export and import activities. As the indicators of the economy openness to the world level, there are usually used the rates of export, import, turnover to the aggregates of economic activity, . the rate of export, 17 import and turnover to the GDP. To secure a higher parative level (the question of the inconsistent understanding of GDP, nonconsistence of home and world prices), world statistics follow systematically the indicator of per capita export of turnover of foreign trade in USD. The interrelating of national economies with their external environment is of different character at present than it were in past when the foreign trade exchange used be in fact the only form of the external economic relationships. At present, it regards a wide range of twoway flows not only material, financial, credit, labour, but also, with still growing dynamics, of nonmaterial flows: information, learning, technological services, scientific and research results in the form of patents, licences, knowhow in the widest sense. Besides the considerable growth of the share of nonmaterial flows, there changes also the character of the modity foreign trade. From the exchange of final goods, the balance shifts to the exchange of intermediate products as the results of the partial etaps of processing. It means the transition from the vertical to horizontal modity exchan