Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Dieter Stiefel, Alice Teichova (Hrsg.): Sonderband 9. „Zarte Bande” – Österreich und die europäischen planwirtschaftlichen Länder / „Delicate Relationships” – Austria and Europe’s Planned Economies (2006)
Eduard Kubů: Restoration and Régularisation of Economie Cooperation under the Circumstances of Accelerating Cold War
Austrian negotiating position, which became stronger thanks to Austria’s economic growth and stabilisation of the Schilling.15 Prague proposed limiting the purely compensatory trade and replacing it with a clearing system because the intermittent and occasional nature of compensatory deals was contrary to Czechoslovak efforts to put a fixed import and export plan in place. Austrians continued to refuse a new modification of this kind and tried to direct the negotiations towards an agreement on compensations, which were not based on a commitment to fixed volumes of deliveries for the future. The American efforts to put the countries of the emerging Soviet block under economic pressure could be felt behind this Austrian approach. Diplomatic documents indicate that during the negotiations between Austria and the Czechoslovak Republic, the main problem of Austria was not the issue of commitments but the fact that it was unable to compensate for the main Czechoslovak commodity, i.e. coal, by supplying the rolling stock requested by the Czechoslovak party.1'’ Mr. Gruber, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, even emphasised “the necessity to go to the very limits of possible efforts to consolidate and extend the mutual trade relations of the two countries”, when speaking with the Austrian negotiator, the ambassador Löwenthal.* 36 37 During July, the negotiations were brought to a successful conclusion. On July 22, 1948, two documents were signed: Agreement on Exchange of Goods (Abkommen zwischen der Republik Österreich und der Tschechoslowakischen Republik Uber den gegenseitigen Warenaustausch) and a related Payment Agreement (Zahlungsabkommen). Regardless of the final signing, the agreements came into force immediately and were to be implemented with retroactive effect from July 15, 1948.38 The agreement introduced the principle of clearing into the mutual relations and provided that private compensatory deals remained permissible (and were to be settled as late as on August 1, 1949). Both parties promised benevolent approval of deals involving a refinement process. A mixed commission composed of the representatives of both governments was charged with supervising the implementation of the agreement. This commission was to meet at least once a year. The term of the agreement was set at one year; however, if neither of the parties terminates the agreement 30 days prior to expiration of this period, the agreement was to remain in effect with the period of notice being prolonged to three months for the future. The trade agreement included “List A”, which was the list of goods, the export of which to Austria was permitted subject to applicable quotas, and List B, which was Restoration and Régularisation of Economic Cooperation NAP, MFA - APC, box 411, Wiener Tageszeitung 11.6.1948, article „Die CSR als Handelspartner. Österreich muß Sodaexporte zum Schutz seiner Industrien herabsetzend 36 AMFA, PR, Videh 1948 [Vienna 1948], Special report concerning the trade agreement negotiations with Austria dated 30.6.1948. 17 NAP, MFA - APC, box 411, Österreichische Zeitung 11.6.1948, article „Verweigerung der Übernahme fester Lieferungsverpflichtungen an die CSR“. 38 Official signing of documents took place in Prague on October, 29, 1948. 207
