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 Prague saw these trade relations as promising. The June 1952 report on foreign trade with capitalist states put much hope in Austria and ranked this country, together with Finland, Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland and others, among those capitalist states, which “do not fully submit to the pressure of the USA” and which also produced and delivered that which the Czechoslovak economy needs.51 At the meeting of the mixed commission in January 1953, it was again agreed that the solid mineral fuels would be reciprocally interlinked with steel, electric furnaces, ball bearings and rolled stock. Prague made a proposal that a greater part of the fuels should be paid in dollars and also tried to break the embargo on some types of ball bearings, which was observed by Austria. As a result of Vienna’s refusal, the idea of coordinating the course of action against Austria with Poland, which was also a very important supplier of coal for the Austrian economy, was considered.52 53 In spite of the difficulties in negotiations, a strategic analysis of the main directions of development of foreign trade until 1960 gave Austria, together with Finland, “a special political-economic position where our interest in developing trade is the highest” in the Czechoslovak plans. The way to increase the scope of trade relations was to be based, among other things, on what was referred to as triangle deals, i.e. deals involving barter trade among three states.55 However, the subsequent meetings, which took place in two phases (December 14-18, 1953 and January 18-February 12, 1954) in Prague, went basically along old lines. The quota lists were slightly modified and both parties agreed to benevolently judge the re-export and transit deals. In a note dated February 17, the reciprocally interlinked items, the number of which amounted to 37, were specified.54 The December 1954 governmental resolution on starting negotiations with Austria about a new trade agreement expressed a new attitude to Austria. It stated that it was a country of special importance not only for economic reasons but also for political reasons and that it had all the prerequisites for becoming an important trade partner again. However, the condition was that Czechoslovakia would become a reliable state as concerns deliveries of coal. The fact that until then Czechoslovakia was failing to deliver agreed quotas was described as an act forcing Austria to be more dependent on West Germany and the USA. In future, the quotas were to be complied with and Prague abandoned the reciprocal link between coal deliveries and steel deliveries because the increased Czechoslovak production capacity was able better to cover domestic consumption. Steel was left as an item 51 NAP, MFT, Tajné spisy [Secret records] 1952, box no. 2, inventory no. 36, report dated 21.6.1952, no. 33190/52. 52 NAP, MFT 1945-1968, TD, Rakousko 1953 [Austria 1953], Report on the course of economic- political talks with Austria for the Minister’s team, dated 21.3.1953, without number. 53 NAP, GPO, Tajné spisy 1945-1959 [Secret records], box 262, dokument Hlavni smëry rozvoje zahraniCniho obchodu v letech 1955-1960 [Main directions of the foreign trade development for the years 1955-1960] dated 30.1.1954, no. 152 142/54. 54 NAP, MFT 1945-1968, TD, Rakousko - smlouvy [Austria - agreements], without number. 212
