NATO's Troubles with East-West Trade

Abstract

East-west economic relations have never before played such an important and divisive role in the politics of the Western alliance as they do today. The lifting of the pipeline sanctions has removed the most immediate source of tension. Nevertheless, the underlying transatlantic disputes that provoked that conflict remain. Moreover, these disputes have developed in an environment of growing U.S.-European tensions over other fundamental issues, such as how to respond to the Soviet peace offensive, whether to station intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe, and what to do about periodic domestic sentiment for a reduction of American troops in Europe. Currently, there are two major opportunities for the West to review EastWest economic issues, and possibly to ease some of the conflicts within the alliance. Europe and Japan have cooperated with the U.S. on several multilateral studies on East-West commercial ties as an informal quid pro quo for the removal of the pipeline sanctions. The key studies are: an International Energy Agency (I.E.A.) analysis of alternatives to Soviet energy; a special Coordinating Committee (CoCom) study on strategic technology; an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) examination of credits; and a NATO study of the security implications of East-West economic relations. Moreover, the U. S. Export Administration Act is coming up for renewal in the fall of 1983, and the Congressional debates about export controls provide a forum for reevaluating the various domestic constituencies involved in these questions. The allies will hopefully use these studies and debates to state their different perspectives and goals and to attempt to find a compromise between often diametrically opposed positions. The focus of these discussions should be the security implications of EastWest economic ties. It is time for the West to reaffirm a major premise: the main criterion for formulating allied commercial policy toward Communist