Asymmetry and Imbalance in Trade between East and West in the 1980s

Abstract

An analysis of the development of East-West trade in the 1980s and earlier allows us to draw a conclusion about the imbalance in the importance of mutual economic relations at that time. This imbalance was multi-faceted and manifested itself in, e.g., imbalance in the structure of trade in goods, payment asymmetry, as well as various motives of OECD and Comecon countries when making decisions on mutual exchange. The imbalance in the commodity structure of the East-West mutual trade reflected the fact that complementary goods were exchanged instead of, as was the case in countries characterized by a modern exchange structure, substitute products. The complementary nature of East-West trade meant that the exports of the socialist countries to the markets of the Western countries encompassed, to a large extent, different commodity groups than the imports of the Comecon countries from this area. While exports from socialist countries consisted mainly of goods with a relatively low degree of processing, the exports of capitalist countries to their Eastern partners encompassed mainly finished products with a significant degree of processing and the involvement of modern technological thought.