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Soviet Union [USSR] The United States
Trade between the United States and the Soviet Union averaged
about 1 percent of total trade for both countries through the 1970s
and 1980s. Soviet-American trade peaked in 1979 at US$4.5 billion,
exactly 1 percent of total United States trade. The Soviet Union
continuously ran a trade deficit with the United States in the
1970s and early 1980s, but from 1985 through 1987 the Soviet Union
cut imports from the United States while maintaining its level of
exports to balance trade between the two countries.
In 1987 total trade between the United States and the Soviet
Union amounted to US$2 billion. The Soviet Union exported
chemicals, metals (including gold), and petroleum products in
addition to fur skins, alcoholic beverages, and fish products to
the United States and received agricultural goods--mostly grain--
and industrial equipment in return. The value of exports to the
Soviet Union in 1987 amounted to US$1.5 billion, three-quarters of
which consisted of agricultural products and one-quarter industrial
equipment.
Competition from other parts of the world, improvements in
Soviet grain production, and political disagreements between the
two countries adversely affected American agricultural exports to
the Soviet Union in the 1980s. In 1985 and 1986, trade was the
lowest since 1973. The Soviet Union had turned to Canada and
Western Europe for one-third of its grain supplies, as well as to
Argentina, Eastern Europe, Australia, and China. United States
government price subsidies helped to expand grain exports in 1987
and 1988.
The United States has long linked trade with the Soviet Union
to its foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and, especially since
the early 1980s, to Soviet human rights policies (see table 48,
Appendix A). In 1949, for example, the Coordinating Committee for
Multilateral Export Controls
(
CoCom--see Glossary) was established
by Western governments to monitor the export of sensitive high
technology that would improve military effectiveness of members of
the Warsaw Pact
(see Soviet Union USSR - Appendix C) and certain other countries. The
Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which was attached to the 1974 Trade
Reform Act, linked the granting of
most-favored-nation status (see Glossary) to the right
of Soviet Jews to emigrate.
In 1987 the United States had reason to reassess its trade
policy toward the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had restructured
and decentralized authority for trade under the Ministry of Foreign
Trade, made improvements in human rights policies, cooperated in
arms control negotiations, and shown a willingness to experiment
with joint ventures. Furthermore, the United States government
recognized that restrictive trade policies were hurting its own
economic interests. In April 1988, Soviet and American trade
delegations met in Moscow to discuss possibilities for expanded
trade. Through increased trade with the United States, the Soviet
Union hoped to learn Western management, marketing, and
manufacturing skills. Such skills would increase the ability of the
Soviet Union to export manufactured goods, and thus earn hard
currency, and would improve its competitiveness on the world
market. The delegations declared that Soviet-American cooperation
would be expanded in the areas of food processing, energy,
construction equipment, medical products, and the service sector.
Data as of May 1989
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