U.S. West, Soviet Far East: Potential for Cooperation

Speaking in Vladivostok, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev proposed, as an alternative to confrontation and growing tension in the Pacific region, the development of cooperation and trade between the countries of the region and the Soviet Far East. There are vast opportunities for cooperation between the Pacific regions of the Soviet Union and the United States.

The two countries closely cooperate in fishing, an important area of bilateral contacts. The joint Soviet-American Marine Resources Co. with headquarters in Nakhodka and Seattle, which has been in operation since 1979, sets an example of profitable cooperation not only for the Pacific regions in both countries but also for the whole of Soviet-American trade. Since 1979 it has expanded 22 times over. According to a Soviet fishing-fleet executive, the company has a vast latent potential for development.

Meanwhile, fishing is but one of the many areas of possible cooperation for the Soviet Far East, which has been heading into a new stage of comprehensive economic development, and the Western United States.

According to Andrei Plavinsky, the head of the department for North America of the Soviet Foreign Trade Ministry, several years ago the Soviet Dalintorg Foreign Trade Assn. actively sought ways of expanding Soviet-American coastal trade in the Pacific region. This association maintains close business contacts with Japanese, Chinese and North Korean companies. It failed, however, to find an interested partner in the United States.

“At that time the American side contacted us with a request for the delivery of timber and some other raw materials. This deal meant for us then a considerable effort and little profit. With the completion of the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway, the situation has drastically changed. New opportunities have been created to expand the export deliveries of East Siberian timber via the Soviet Far East. A project has been developed for the export of coking coal from the Siberian Neryungri fields to the United States. So far, only some steel-making plants in the Great Lakes area have approached us with a request for this coal, but there is a possibility of making deliveries to the Western states, too,” Plavinsky said.

“The bulk of the Soviet purchases of American grain and Californian almonds for the food industry will go by way of Pacific states to the Far East,” the Foreign Trade Ministry official continued.

Plavinsky added that America’s Western states are the seat of long-time Soviet trade partners, such as Occidental Petroleum and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce--a collective member of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council.

An interest in coastal trade has been shown by other U.S. businessmen on the Pacific Coast. Eduard Velichko, a representative of the Soviet Chamber of Commerce and Industry, mentions the coming September visit of U.S. businessmen to Nakhodka as an indication of a new stage in Soviet-American trade relations. The purpose of this visit is to probe opportunities for direct trade and economic ties with the Soviet Far East.

He emphasized that the group members represent the business communities of the states of Washington, Oregon and California. Judging by preliminary information provided by the American side, the businessmen intend to study the opportunities for importing Russian timber and other consumer goods.

According to the Soviet official, the extension of coastal cooperation in which the American businessmen are interested is both possible and profitable for Soviet Far Eastern economy.

The program for social and economic restructuring in the Soviet Far East creates other opportunities, too. A need to streamline mechanical engineering calls for the additional delivery of modern technology from California’s Silicon Valley. Cooperation with the U.S. states on the Pacific Coast could promote the modernization of the repair facilities and fishing ports on the Soviet Union’s Pacific Coast and the development of oil and gas deposits on the Sakhalin Shelf. The implementation of all these projects may be hampered, however, by Washington’s limitations on trade with the Soviet Union.

Important areas of cooperation currently secured against the U.S. Administration’s economic sanctions include establishing an efficient technical base for housing construction, fertilizer production and other agribusinesses and services.