ABSTRACT
The significance of foreign trade for Czechoslovakia's national economy has further increased since the second half of the 1970s. In 1980-1987 the foreign trade turnover rose by 57% nominally, and by 21% in real terms. Nominally, growth of exports and imports was about the same, but in real terms exports increased much faster. The commodity structure in foreign trade has played a decisive role in the unfavorable terms of trade development. Czechoslovakia's high indebtedness in convertible currencies, which had reached its peak at the turn of the 1970s, induced the government to significantly curb imports from Western industrialized countries. Since Czechoslovakia became a centrally planned economy, it has lost market shares in the world market. This development is caused not only by the decreasing competitiveness of Czechoslovak products, but also by the cumbersome organization of foreign trade. The joint ventures were to be export-oriented, but could also sell on the domestic market.
