Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
ATTACK ON THE OMFB - Storm clouds
FABULOUS SPY GAMES scientific, research, economic areas, in foreign trade and foreign service.”419 As the person at the OMFB responsible for import matters, he wielded significant power as he took over control of managing and initiating relationships with foreign companies following the foundation of the Committee. The Ministry of Foreign Trade normatively relied on the recommendations of the OMFB as it had to fulfil requests from the most competent advisory body in the country in technical and scientific matters. The western companies that came into contact with Hungarian foreign trade through the Committee enjoyed huge advantages. Their rivals had practically no chance against them.420 In addition to having an increasing budget from year to year, the OMFB was able to accept deliveries free of customs duty, which meant an unbeatable competitive advantage for the western partners against the companies who did not enter the Hungarian market through the technical development body of the Council of Ministers. The majority of leaders at the Ministry of Foreign Trade were not exactly happy about these privileges, and conflicts arising from clashing competencies between the two institutions were commonplace, with the OMFB generally enjoying the upper hand.421 Jenő Baczoni, the deputy minister for foreign trade, stood firm against Sebestyén when the latter put forward a draff proposal for wide-ranging cooperation with Siemens. He vetoed it successfully, at least for a while, so an extremely intense rivalry unfolded between them in the early 1970s.422 The Siemens lobby, however, could not be stymied, even though serious conflicts of interests developed on the market, but let us go into more detail on these in the next chapter. 419 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-15829/1, p. 41 Executive report, 23 June 1969 420 ÁBTL 3.1.9 V-160121/2, p. 28 Report, 10 August 1973 421 ÁBTL 3.1.9 V-160121/3, p. 92 Report, 27 July 1973 422 ÁBTL 3.1.9 V-160121/3, p. 99 Report, 3 August 1973 Over time, the circle controlled by Sebestyén enjoyed increasing autonomy, with some powerful individuals also helping them within the ministry. The scientific committee could not make purchases on its own but had to make use of the foreign trade companies holding various monopolies. These companies covered only a given segment of the market, so they had to submit orders to different companies to buy products of different types. This must have been 154
