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
Eduard Kubû the list of goods, the export of which from Austria to Czechoslovakia was permitted. In an annex to the document, Austrians requested a specification of the import of solid mineral fuels worth 0.25 billion Crowns, which was to be composed of 150,000 t of brown coal, 30,000 t of power generator brown coal, 60,000 t of coke and 143,000 t of black coal. The payment agreement introduced two dollar central accounts: one with the Czechoslovak National Bank in Prague - the Account A for commercial payments and the Account B for other payments of a non-commercial nature, and there were similar accounts with the Austrian National Bank in Vienna. In order to ensure the continuity of mutual deliveries, both banks were to make payments even in excess of the relevant credit of the other party up to the amount of 1 million dollars (the loan limit).39 In terms of volume, the agreement envisioned exchange of goods worth 2.2 billion Czechoslovak Crowns. The introduced clearing system had a specific aspect in the form of interlinked deals, in which the exchange of certain especially valuable types of goods for some other specifically set types of valuable goods was carried out on a weighted basis. A classic interlinked reciprocal deal was the exchange of Austrian cut steel, alloy steel and thin metal sheets for deliveries of coke and black coal. From this moment, the interlinked reciprocal deals were to be approved and checked by the MFT, Department 2/5. In future, the established practice was that the most important interlinked items were also explicitly stated in annexes to the records on economic negotiations. However, the development of the actual exchange governed by the agreement was complicated by the realities of the deepening cold war. The MFT prepared several analyses of the Marshall Plan’s effects on Czechoslovak production and trade and of the impacts of the economic embargo imposed by the United States of America and Western Europe. An analysis dated February 8, 1949 stated with satisfaction that most kinds of American goods were being successfully re-exported through Western European countries, primarily Sweden and Switzerland. Ferromet, a foreign trade company, reported difficulties with imports of non-ferrous metals. The extensive construction of Austrian hydroelectric power plants, whose output would exceed the consumption of the state, raised concern about Austrian competition because with these power plants Austria would be able to extend the industry of modem metallurgy, especially light metals metallurgy, and this could affect Czechoslovak metallurgy development plans. American pressure on Austria, exerted through the assistance under the Marshall Plan, was allegedly also reflected NAP, MFT 1945-1968, TD, Rakousko 1945 1952 [Austria 1945-1952], dossier Smlouvy a dohody [Treaties and agreements]; NAP, Üfad pfedsednictva vlâdy [Government Presidium Office - hereinafter referred to as GPO], bèZnà spisovna [Standard filing department], box no. I 128, no. 209 172/48. 208
