ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the impact of American trade pressure on the aggregate level of trade flows, and on the direction of trade between American and Soviet Union. It looks at the economic impact on the USSR of selective commodity sanctions, denial or limits on particular goods to the USSR, and boycotts of various Soviet exports. Cold war rivalry played a major part in small-scale economic activity generated between the two superpowers. Trade ties began to emerge on a measurable scale by the 1960s, and benefited greatly from detente during 1970s. Soviet-American bilateral trade amounted to a very insignificant proportion of the overall trade conducted by each side, and trade was dominated mostly by Soviet imports from America. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union did export a number of goods to the United States. The USSR’s leading exports - energy and arms - were not exported to United States, meaning that its most important or leading export sectors back home were fairly secure.
