ABSTRACT
More than four years have passed since M.S. Gorbachev's appointment to the office of Secretary General of the CPSU in March 1985 and since he initiated a program of economic and social changes in the Soviet Union. Apart from plenty of administrative shifts three major institutional arrangements affect the current Soviet economic system: the laws on state enterprises, private cooperatives and the new foreign trade regulations. The Law on the State Enterprise became effective on January 1, 1988, and since January 1, 1989, it is applied in the whole economy. The brief description of regulations valid for state enterprises and cooperatives is relevant also for assessing foreign trade reforms. From April 1989 on, all Soviet enterprises and cooperatives have the right to perform foreign trade operations – provided their output is "competitive" on foreign markets. Soviet economists point out in discussions with central authorities that decisive steps towards more market and monetarization of the economy are required.
