ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the influence of international trade considerations on Soviet foreign policy. The principal domestic factors are considered to be the nature of the Soviet economic system itself and the domestic resource base of labour and raw materials. A high rate of the industrial growth was achieved in the 1930s and the immediate post-war period by maintaining a high rate of growth of industrial inputs of labour and raw materials. The importance of trade to Soviet economy cannot be measured adequately by foreign trade prices, as different price systems are used in domestic economy, intra-CMEA trade and trade with West. The USSR cancelled its trade agreement with the USA and concentrated on the development of natural gas deposits in northwest Siberia, with European and Japanese cooperation to supply East and West Europe by pipeline.
