ABSTRACT
The European Community stresses its interest in developing East-West trade on the basis of the Helsinki Final Act, but it also emphasises the — more status quo oriented — need for a normalisation of its economic relationship with Eastern Europe, subject to factors of economic risk and security needs. West European criticism of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance's (CMEA) incomplete integration also glosses over the fact that the European Economic Community's (EEC) own position in relation to trade policy with CMEA countries is full of gaps and inadequacies. The EEC's agricultural exports to Eastern Europe are a definite bone of contention within the European Parliament. The West Europeans are as little interested in reducing their economic cooperation with the East, as America is in changing its position on East-West economic relations which is shaped by rivalry with the Soviet Union.
