Socialist Countries in GATT

Abstract

The present stage in East-West economic cooperation has reached the point at which four socialist countries have become members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and were thus admitted to the world trade system on the basis of non-discrimination and the most-favored-nation clause. Of those, Poland, Romania and Hungary are also members of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (CMEA, Comecon) while Yugoslavia-not a formal member-is extensively engaged in the socialist system of economic cooperation. Trade between socialist and free economy countries has a long history, and foreign trade experts are quite familiar with socialist foreign trade techniques.1 Free world exporters and importers in a number of countries represent today an impressive business milieu professionally engaged in East-West economic cooperation. It is also true however that East-West trade operations are, compared with world trade volume, relatively insignificant. Even today, the foreign trade policy of the socialist countries seems to be directed at preventing their full integration into the world economic system. The main reason seems to be that the function of foreign trade is primarily to obtain financing for transforming the national economies of these countries into industrial societies, according to programs fixed in their long term economic plans.2 While this remains true today, it is also true that joining GATT was connected with an important change of mind as regards the function of foreign trade in socialist economies. The Communique on the 25th session of the CMEA (6 July 1971) stated that: The session declared that any country that is not a Comecon member can fully or partially participate in the implementation of the measures envisaged by the comprehensive program. The CMEA member countries will continue to develop economic, scientific and technical ties with