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)
Zarko Lazarevic/Jo2e PrinCiC Yugoslavia’s efforts to join EFTA and obtain its financial support. However, stronger economic cooperation was no longer in the interest of Austria. Austrian investment in join ventures in Yugoslavia decreased13 and Yugoslavia also came off the list of the top fifteen countries with which Austria had planned the exchange of goods; Yugoslavia landed in the 23rd place.14 Other neighbouring countries became more important trading partners.15 In the mid-1980s, Austria did not envisage any need to increase the exchange of goods, sign an agreement on border-region economic cooperation or an agreement on the abolition of double taxation16, to reduce the level of import duty or other measures that obstructed imports from Yugoslavia. In the mid-1980s, it was only interested in strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism, increasing the exchange of goods with the fair contracts, the freight of goods to Yugoslav ports, investing in power plants, construction of a tunnel through the Karavanke Mountains and a joint presence in other markets. In the late 1980s the interests of Austria shrank to investment in tourist facilities and co-financing of the SentiIj - Zagreb motorway, and to environmental protection in connection with the nuclear power plant Kräko. The Austrian view on border-region economic cooperation differed from the Yugoslav one. Austria was only prepared to support direct links between companies from both sides of the border. With that in mind, first the abolition of duty was allowed for particular kinds of industrial products. Later, in 1973, Austria signed an Agreement on Economic Industrial and Technical Cooperation, whereby it accepted an obligation to encourage economic cooperation between companies.17 Austria still refused to acknowledge the constant complaints from Yugoslavia about the balance of trade and balance of payments, saying that the currency balance between the countries was almost levelled or even in favour of Yugoslavia.18 According to Austrian calculations, Yugoslavia “compensated for” the trade deficit with income from Austrian tourists, Yugoslav workers in Austria,19 Yugoslav traffic services to Austrian companies and transport services to Koper (and Rijeka). It answered to complaints about not supporting the establishment of Yugoslav companies in Austria by listing the Yugoslav companies which were unreliable and inconsistent partners. In their opinion, the Yugoslav economy was not well organised and not entrepreneurial enough to be competitive in the Austrian market. It regarded only a handful of Slovene companies (Gorenje, Radenska, Elan) to have a commercial 13 S i ma :, Die jugoslawischen Betriebsansiedlungen in Kärnten, p. 14. 14 Koprivnik, Rudi: Blagovna menjava med Jugoslavijo in Avstrijo. In: Avstrija, naS poslovni partner. Ljubljana, 1989, p. 81. 15 Sima: Die jugoslawischen Betriebsansiedlungen in Kärnten, p. 5. 16 ARS, 223-5626. 17 Uradni list (UL) SFRJ, Mcdnarodne pogodbe, no.51/27, 27.9.1973. 18 ARS, 223-5620. 19 Sima: Die jugoslawischen Betriebsansiedlungen in Kärnten, p. 13. 240
