ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses questions of how the Department of Commerce views the prospects for East-West trade and, in particular, trade with the Soviet Union. It discusses the overall United States (US) policy approach to trade with the Soviet Union and explains what probably are—or have been—the most contentious trade issues involving the Soviet Union—that is, the question of technology transfer and the issue of sanctions and controls in the context of East-West trade. The Department of Commerce recognized that East-West trade historically has been of much greater economic and political significance to Western Europe, and especially to the Federal Republic of Germany, than to the US. But even so, East-West trade has always been quite small in comparison with total Western commerce. As to the overall US approach to trade with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Department of Commerce views trade as an important part of the total American-Soviet relationship.
