ABSTRACT
There exists in the USSR a broad and multi-tiered system of state administrative agencies dealing with foreign economic relations. Decree No. 991 of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of 19 August 1986 extended direct access to foreign markets to almost twenty branch ministries and departments. In the Soviet juridical literature the opinion has justly been expressed that of all the issues involved with the state monopoly, the most complex from the theoretical point of view, and at the same time the most important from the practical point of view, are those attendant on the determination of the organizational forms of state guidance and the conduct of foreign economic activity. With the expansion of the network of state administrative agencies responsible for foreign economic operations and its further ramification, the responsibilities and functions of two specialized agencies—the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the State Committee for Foreign Economic Relations—have also been redefined.
