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
exporting steel was the main agenda of the meeting held by the mixed commission in July 1951. In a sharp discussion, the Czechoslovak delegation stated that deliveries of coal could only be discussed in connection with steel, with which coal had already been interlinked economically and politically at the previous meetings.4* American embargo activities culminated in summer 1951. On August 29, the Battle Act was passed, which threatened to stop the provision of assistance to the states, which exported embargoed goods to eastern states. In September, the USA terminated Czechoslovakia’s customs preferential treatment clause, ensuing from the membership of GATT, and the House of Representatives passed a resolution on breaking trade relations with Czechoslovakia in connection with the imprisonment of an alleged American spy Oatis.48 49 In spite of this, the meetings of the mixed commission held from July 24 to September 29, 1951 eventually ended in a success for Czechoslovakia. The contracted deliveries of refined steel were to be carried out in full and a new quota was also agreed. The agreement explicitly stated that if the Austrian party would not meet its obligations concerning the deliveries of steel, the agreed deliveries of Czechoslovak fuels also would not be carried out. The loan limit was also increased from 3 million dollars to 3.5 million. In a special note, Austria proposed limiting the scope of interlinked deals but, at the same time, it proposed regularising the negotiations of interlinked deals through a shortcut between the Czechoslovak commercial attaché in Vienna and the Austrian Centre for Export and Import. At the following meetings held in February 1952, Austrians refused to sign and create a new memorandum and only proposed renewal of the old one, stating that a new memorandum would have to be approved by the Allied Control Commission. In 1952, the problems of mutual trade somewhat changed. The Czechoslovak party also experienced problems in the form of its strained situation concerning payments in dollars and pounds. It became apparent that the foreign trade companies were having a problem with ensuring the planned export resources in production in compliance with the necessary range of products and quality. The rapidly and disproportionately developing Czechoslovak economy was getting into its first very serious problems.50 As a result, foreign trade with Austria continued to decline but Restoration and Régularisation of Economic Cooperation 48 NAP, Ministerstvo financi [Ministry of Finance], Tajné spisy [Secret records], Rakousko [Austria], nezpracované 1951 [uninventorised records 1951], report of envoy Ladislav Koubek dated 9.8.1951. 49 NAP, MFT 1945-1954, Sekretariat viceministra E. Löbla [seceretariat of viceminister E. Löbl], box no. 38, analytical document DiskriminaCni opatfeni ze strany kapitalistickÿch statu [Disriminating measures of capitalist states], dated , MFT 1945-1954, Sekretariat viceministra [seceretariat of viceminister], box no. 29 23.9.1951. 50 NAP, GPO, Tajné spisy [Secret records] 1945-1959, box 259, file 58 A, report by the State Planning Office for the government on the discussion about the proposal for modifications to the foreign trade plan for the year 1952. 211
