The Communist foreign trade system / by Frederic L. Pryor.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-293) and index.

Survey - I. The role of foreign trade -- 1. Autarky in the CMEA Bloc -- 2. Results of Autarky -- 3. Specialization of Production: 1956-60 -- 4. Summary and conclusions

National aspects - II. Problems of planning and organizing -- 1. Plans and performance -- 2. Dilemmas of organization and planning --
3. Links between foreign and domestic markets -- 4. Summary and conclusions - III. Reforms in the foreign trade system -- 1. Changes in organization and the planning process -- 2. Other changes in planning -- 3. Links between foreign and domestic markets -- 4. Summary and conclusions - IV. Criteria for decision-making -- 1. The domestic price system for the DDR -- 2. Criteria for trade: balancing of the material balances -- 3. Criteria for trade: The 'preisausgleich' -- 4. Criteria for trade: Profitability coefficients -- 5. Criteria for trade: Natural resources and factor endowments -- 6. Other criteria for trade -- 7. Incentives for foreign trade -- 8. Foreign trade and investment criteria -- 9. Summary and conclusions

International aspects - V. The price setting process -- 1. Intra-bloc foreign trade prices: A bloc view -- 2. The process of setting intra-bloc foreign trade prices -- 3. Empirical analysis of intra-bloc foreign trade prices -- 4. Theoretical and practical problems in price setting between bloc nations -- 5. Future trends in intra-bloc foreign trade pricing - VI. The choice of trade partners -- 1. The Pattern of CMEA trade between East and West -- 2. The pattern of CMEA trade between economically developed and underdeveloped non-communist nations -- 3. The pattern of trade within the CMEA bloc -- 4. Summary and conclusions

The systems as a whole - VII. Mechanism in intra-bloc foreign trade -- 1. Mechanisms in trade between market economies -- 2. Co-ordination of production and trade in teh bloc -- 3. Joint planning efforts -- 4. Summary and conclusions - VIII. The future of communist trade.

"Securing sufficient information to form a balanced picture of any aspect of Communist economies takes a good deal of time and patience. As I discuss in the text, information has been scanty and highly selective. Moreover, even serious Communist discussion on foreign trade issues has been, for the most part, marked by tendentious justifications of government policy, vacous name-calling and imputation of motives, or assertions of spectacular growth and efficiency, substantiated by reference to the growing Socialist consciousness of the citizenry. Even a large number of academic articles on technical trade topics have been marked by a low degree of rigour and a surprisingly high degree of ignorance... In carrying out this study I thought it important not only to thoroughly roeview the East Bloc economic literature on foreign trade but also to hold interviews with foreign trade experts in both East and West. In this way I could not only obtain more information but could also hear all sides of the various issues which I was trying to judge." -- From the preface.

From the library of Karl and Elizabeth Niebyl.