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 balance with Austria was 69.2 percent, but it dropped to 26.6 percent in 1979. Only with the Federal Republic of Germany did Yugoslavia have a worse trade balance.7 * In its foreign policy of the 1970s, Yugoslavia frequently showed its disappointment with the Austrian refusal to reach an interstate agreement on economic cooperation in border areas. The Yugoslav government supported an initiative to promote and strengthen border exchange of goods with Austria back in 1969. Negotiations and talks stretched over ten years, until the Austrian side announced its withdrawal from the agreement in September 1980. At the end of the 1970s, there were only a few points of common interest between the countries where cooperation was not in question, namely the construction of a motorway tunnel through the Karavanke Mountains and a joint presence in other markets, especially in economically less-developed countries of the Third World. At the beginning of the 1980s, the economic crisis in Yugoslavia gradually deepened. With the decline in development, the economy was increasingly lagging behind the Austrian economy.* In the second half of the 1980s, Yugoslavia was more aggressive in its export policies, but was still not successful enough to narrow the trade imbalance with its northern neighbour. However, the trade balance improved by 1991. In 1985 it stood at 57.6 percent and it further picked up in the following years.9 In the 1980s, the federal government transferred power to sign economic agreements and contracts almost entirely to the governments of individual republics, chambers of commerce, and companies. This diminished the possibility of a united and solid presence for Yugoslav companies in the Austrian market. The measures adopted by the Yugoslav government to counteract the deepening economic crisis influenced economic relations with Austria, especially in the border region. In 1982, the federal government severely limited the number of border crossings without deposit payment. As a consequence, the extent of border exchange between the neighbouring countries dropped first by 15 percent and then by 20 percent in the following two years. In the second half of the 1980s, the federal government decreased imports and abolished the regime of conditionally free imports; it introduced forms of protection of domestic production other than pricing and limited the right of exporting companies to dispose of foreign currency profits. These measures reduced the ability and interest of Yugoslav and Austrian companies to increase exchange and cooperation. In the period after World War II, the federal and Slovenian governments considered the Austrian economic policy towards Yugoslavia slow and overly cautious. They admitted that the Austrian federal government did not contest closer 7 Sima, Valentin: Die jugoslawischen Betriebsansiedlungen in Kärnten. Dissertation. Wien, 1990, p. 6. * Ovin, Rastko: Uôinkovitost jugoslovanskega gospodarstva. In: Delo, 3.8.1990. 9 Sima: Die jugoslawischen Betriebsansiedlungen in Kärnten, p. 6. 238
