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 Kubù delegation of ten technicians from production plants, who would negotiate with the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and the relevant interested parties about an increase in the sale of machine products.57 The ambitious project of extending economic relations with Austria, prepared by the Minister of Foreign Trade, was stopped by a declaration of the State Planning Office that its prospective forecast did not permit a 7-8 percent annual increase in the export quotas of coal. A condition was set that if the Austrian quota were increased, import of coal from Poland would have to be ensured.58 Austria regained state sovereignty on July 27, 1955 when France, as the last state, added its ratification document to the State Treaty on the restoration of independent and democratic Austria signed in May this year. On September 8, 1955, Czechoslovakia also became a party to this agreement without hesitation. A note of 30 September contained a proposal addressed to Austria for initiation of talks on régularisation and extension of Czechoslovak-Austrian relations. The Austrian party tried to postpone the economic- political part of the negotiations, in spite of the fact that the previous memorandum became invalid. Austria only proposed technical renewal of the old memorandum for one year, citing technical and personnel difficulties as the reason. This significantly endangered the Czechoslovak concept of extension of relations. The analysis of the situation, made by the commercial department of the embassy in Vienna and hastily sent to Prague to the Ministry of Foreign Trade, admitted that the personnel-related difficulties were an objective fact; nevertheless, it stated that it was only a pretext because “Austrians, with dark intentions, seek to postpone higher exports and imports in order to disrupt our start of the second five-year plan”. The analysis concluded that if the negotiations were postponed, Czechoslovakia would suffer serious political damage because “the influential circles from the USA, with the support of Austrians, view the emerging opportunities for exchange of goods between Austria and its neighbouring people’s democratic states and the USSR with displeasure”. Postponement of the talks was allegedly associated with considerable losses with regard to the favourable situation for exports of machines to Austria.59 In November 1955, a new project for starting trade negotiations with Austria was presented to the government by the MFT. This project primarily sought to increase the volume of trade exchange by 40-50 percent and to obtain the deliveries of the embargoed items on the commodity list (especially ball bearings). The document 57 Ibid, Nâvrh na rozâifeni hospodâfskÿch stykü s Rakouskem [Proposal on widenning of economic relations with Austria] dated 21.5.1955, no. 0 300 913/55. 58 Ibid, Pfipis pfedsedy Stâtniho ùfadu plànovaciho nâmêstkyni pfedsedy vlâdy L. Janovcové [Letter of the State Planning Office president to the viceprime minister], dated 15.7.1955, no. 1 13 418/55. 59 NAP, MFT, Tajné spisy [Secret records] 1955, box no. 1, Rakousko - nezpracované [Austria - uninventorised records], Report dated 3.11.1955, no. 3 071/55. 214
