1. THE BILATERAL CHARACTER OF SOVIET AND EASTERN EUROPEAN FOREIGN TRADE.
- Author
-
McMillan, C.H.
- Subjects
COMMERCIAL policy ,INTERNATIONAL economic relations - Abstract
This paper examines the empirical evidence for bilateralism in the recenttrade of the Comecon countries and analyses its sources in socialist foreigntrade planning and practice. Particular reference is made to the Sovietexperience; and since economic size and degree of industrialization have beenfound to act as important determinants of a country's aggregate index ofbilateralism, comparisons are drawn between the Soviet and US trade patterns.While there is some evidence of unusual bilateralism in Soviet trade as a whole,the results show for both the Soviet Union and the US a marked variancedepending upon the monetary region with which trade is conducted. The evidencesuggests that it is the constraints imposed by 'currency' and 'commodity'inconvertibility in trade with the Comecon countries which largely explain thebilateral nature of Soviet trade in the aggregate. The analysis is then extendedto trade among all the Comecon countries, and Comecon efforts to multilateralizeregional trade are found to have been, through 1970, unsuccessful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1974
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