The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 44 No. 2 1962
Soviet Foreign Trade Pricing and the Question of Discrimination
Abstract
IN recent years considerable interest has attached to economic relations among the nations of the Soviet Bloc. One aspect of these relations which has received particularly intensive analysis has been the terms on which trade has been conducted between the Soviet Union and the communist countries of Eastern Europe.' Dr. Horst Mendershausen, utilizing the now annually published Soviet foreign trade returns, has attempted to throw some light on this question by comparing the average unit values of Soviet exports to and imports from the Bloc and Free Europe, respectively, where the same class of export or import is sold to or purchased from some countries in each group.2 Some of the major results of Mendershausen's analysis for the years I955-58 are as follows: (i) For more than 2 out of every 3 commodities sold by the Soviets to both the Bloc and Free Europe, the Bloc nations have paid a higher average price than the Free European nations. Had the Bloc imported from the Soviets at the Free Europe price, the cost of their imports (of the sample of commodities studied) would have been reduced by the following percentages in the I955-58 period: i6, II, 7, I2. (2) The Soviet import sample is quite small and the results therefore somewhat more tentative. In I955 and I958, the Soviets actually paid the Bloc higher prices for a slight majority of commodities than they paid Free Europe. On the other hand, in I956 and I957, the Soviets paid the Bloc lower prices than Free Europe in roughly 2 out of every 3 cases. The weighted average, furthermore, was very unfavorable to the Bloc in all years. Had they sold to the U.S.S.R. at the same prices that Free Europe did, their receipts (for commodities covered) would have been increased by the following percentages over the years I955-58: I3, 22, 2I, 20. (3) Mendershausen concludes on the basis of the above evidence that the Soviets price discriminate against the members of their Bloc, charging them more for exports and paying them less for imports than they do for comparable commodities in trade with Free Europe. Regarding the procedures which lead to discrimination, Mendershausen concludes:
- DOI
- 10.2307/1928196
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 134
- Sources
- crossref openalex