The Economic Efficiency of the Socialist Countries' Foreign Trade

Abstract

The objective process of the development and intensification of international socialist division of labor proceeds under conditions of the existence of sovereign national socialist states which, in their foreign economic relations, act as the owners of the goods produced. Accordingly, the exchange of the results of economic activity between socialist countries on the basis of production specialization and cooperation is conducted in the form of commodity exchange through socialist foreign trade. The benefits of the international socialist division of labor are realized in the process of commodity exchange; reciprocal international trade reflects the results of the given socialist country's participation in the system of interstate production specialization and cooperation. In this connection, calculations of the economic efficiency of foreign trade, which make it possible to reveal the degree to which the countries have an interest in effecting international specialization and trade in certain types of pr...