GM to Supply Auto Parts to Soviet Union : Trade: The $1-billion deal comes just days after Mikhail Gorbachev criticized American auto makers for not pursuing more joint ventures with his nation.

In what it billed as the first significant working relationship between an American auto company and the Soviet Union in the post-World War II era, General Motors said Thursday that it has agreed to sell nearly $1 billion worth of automotive parts to that country’s largest auto maker.

GM’s announcement comes just days after Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev publicly criticized American auto makers for not taking a more active role in developing bilateral relationships with his nation. Gorbachev, in his meetings Sunday with American business leaders during a visit to Minneapolis, singled out Ford for backing out of a proposed deal last year that would have led to a joint car-making venture in the Russian city of Gorky.

Ford officials backed out of the deal mainly because of concerns that it would be difficult to convert profits from the joint venture from rubles into dollars. Despite assurances, Ford officials felt that the Soviets were not yet fully committed to Western-style capitalistic trade.

GM said it has agreed to sell advanced emissions control equipment and engine fuel injection systems to the Volga Auto Works, or VAZ, for use on two different models. The emissions control equipment should enable the Soviets to drastically reduce the amount of air pollutants that now belch from their aging, low-tech cars. In addition, GM’s advanced fuel injection systems should improve the fuel economy of those cars.

GM shipments to VAZ may begin in early 1992 and extend through 1997, GM said. The company said components will be manufactured initially in GM’s U.S. and European plants, but it has not made a final decision on the ultimate source. GM will be paid in U.S. dollars.

GM also said it is negotiating with VAZ to form a joint venture to produce catalytic converters in Togliatti, a city 700 miles southeast of Moscow.

“We are especially pleased and proud that these first agreements between General Motors and the Soviet auto industry will make substantial contributions to cleaner air and a sounder environment around the world,” said William Hoglund, GM’s executive vice president in charge of the company’s component operations.

GM’s new link with the Soviet Union is just the latest of a series of dramatic moves the company has made into the Eastern Bloc since revolutionary change began to sweep the region last year. In fact, GM has moved far more aggressively than any of its major American or Japanese competitors to gain a presence there.

GM’s West German-based European subsidiary, Adam Opel, has previously announced plans to form a joint venture with an East German auto maker to assemble cars and produce auto parts in East Germany. The new venture, which will be controlled by Adam Opel, expects to begin production late this year, and eventually should be able to produce up to 150,000 Opel Vectra models a year in Eisenach, East Germany.

GM also has signed an agreement to form a joint venture with a Hungarian truck and engine-making organization to produce cars and engines in that country by 1992. GM says it hopes to produce 200,000 cars a year in Hungary, mostly for export to Western Europe. Another 15,000 cars a year will be built for the Hungarian domestic market and for other Eastern Bloc nations. In addition, one GM division has created another joint venture with a Hungarian organization to produce automotive wiring systems in Hungary for cars produced in Western Europe.