Austria’s and Other Western Countries’ Performance in High Technology Exports to the East 1

Austria, being a Western industrial country and a neutral state, is in a very exposed position and is more affected by technology policies than other countries. To establish the technology content of foreign trade of a country, it is customary to use "high tech indicators" which list goods that are considered to be high tech products, according to certain product classifications. The Austrian market share in high tech world trade is even smaller than the already low market share of Austria in total world trade. The share of the East in total high technology exports of Austria is relatively high; however, this share is considerably lower than the share of the East in all exports of Austria. In 1970 the high technology intensity of Austrian exports to the East roughly corresponded to the intensity of Austrian exports to the world, until 1986 the former sank to less than half the intensity of deliveries to the world.