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)
Žarko Lazarević /Jože Prinčič: Slovene-Austrian Economic Relations, 1945-1991 (A View from Slovenia)
Slovene-Austnan Economic Relations, 1945-1991 1950s, the question of the mutual exchange of goods was resolved with agreements, and possibilities were opened for cooperation in other areas of the economy. The 1960s were a decade of searching for and creating of conditions for better and broader economic cooperation. The foreign ministers, the prime ministers and other high officials of both states stressed the need for strengthening trade and longterm cooperation in the fields of industry, energy, tourism and traffic. Growing trade and payment deficits with Austria forced Yugoslavia to expand its presence in the Austrian market. A deficit was generated by a large difference in the value of imports and exports and a different nature of the exchanged goods: Yugoslavia imported largely products which were due to complicated production processes in a high price bracket, whilst it exported products with low prices in the world market. The structural balance of trade with Austria was worse than with other Western European countries. The first step towards narrowing the foreign trade deficit was made in 1961, when Yugoslavia increased its pressure on the Austrian government to give a greater or a special advantage to products from Yugoslavia. This attempt was only partly successful. It was followed by efforts on the mutual development of so called “higher forms” of economic cooperation. This was proof that the traditional forms of exchange no longer met the country’s needs and that there was a need to build upon and change the nature of goods exports. It was not until 1966 to 1968 that the Federal Parliament announced a number of regulations which enabled domestic companies to establish more independent business contacts with foreign partners and open the way to foreign investment.6 Nevertheless, the expected changes were still not realised, as Austrian businesses were not interested in investing in Yugoslavia. Stagnation in political bilateral relations in the early 1970s did not have any economic impact. Austria even offered a loan of 500 million shillings to delay Yugoslav debt repayment and to support new exports. The decade was marked by many bilateral visits at all levels. Strengthening of economic relations was always high on the agenda. In 1978, the Alps Adriatic Working Community was established with the aim of encouraging further development of relations between Austria and Yugoslavia and searching for solutions to problems. All the visits and events were very promising, but produced few concrete results. Economic relations between the countries did not worsen, however, there were neither any noticeable improvements. In Yugoslavia, there was growing dissatisfaction with imbalanced trade and the widening trade and payment deficit with Austria. Exports from Yugoslavia lagged behind imports from Austria; therefore, the ability to cover imports with exports was smaller every year. In 1955, the trade Prini iC, Jo2e: Tuje naloibe v slovenskem gospodarstvu v iasu druge Jugoslavije. In: Prispevki za novejSo zgodovino, XL11. 2002, 1, p. 109-120. 237
