U.S. Consortium Signs Trade Pact with Soviet Group

Abstract

Getting one's foot in the door can be an important first step to doing business. The American Trade Consortium (ATC) has done even better, managing to open the doors wide for its members to establish joint ventures, some of which are chemically related, in the U.S.S.R. Backed by the leverage of six major U.S. corporations, ATC recently signed a general trade agreement with its Soviet counterpart, the Soviet Foreign Economic Consortium. The agreement sets a new standard for negotiated trade agreements between U.S. and Soviet consortia, which are themselves a novel approach to joint business ventures in the Soviet Union. ATC, formed almost exactly one year ago, consists of Archer Daniels Midland, Chevron, Eastman Kodak, Johnson & Johnson, RJR Nabisco, and Mercator. Until recently, Ford Motor also was a member. The Soviet consortium includes the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, Gosplan (the state planning committee), ...