ABSTRACT
The Eastern European nations settle intra-Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) trade on the basis of adjusted world market prices, while trade with the West –which accounts for about one-third of their total foreign trade – is settled in Western currencies on the basis of current prices of the partner country. The almost total isolation of Eastern currencies from international trade and capital flows has a troubled history behind it, in which attempts to integrate the Eastern economies into the world market alternated with tendencies toward isolation and autarky. Like world monetary and credit institutions, international trade organizations are also open to all United Nations members, regardless of their social or economic system. In 1947, when the Marshall Plan was being discussed, there was still a reasonable hope that the Eastern and Southeastern European nations would maintain their traditional economic relations with Western Europe despite the momentous upheavals in their social and economic systems.
