ABSTRACT
Karl Marx was interested in the theory of the growth and collapse of capitalism, not in the theory of socialism or trade among socialist countries and their capitalist counterparts. Foreign trade is an integral part of economic planning, and under the Stalinist model the quantities to be imported were stated in terms of plan fulfillments. The problem of prices at which bloc countries trade among themselves fascinated Western economists because relative prices distribute the gains from specialization and trade. East-West trade became interwoven with the ideological and political differences between the centrally planned economies and the market economies during the Cold War and its aftermath. East-West trade has created vested interests but it has also helped to sharpen some of the contradictions, such as those created by the imbalance of, and the readiness of the United States to prohibit sales of, high technology.
