Report Aimed at PC Firms Pursuing Piece of Europe

For computer companies muddling through the stacks of business and joint venture proposals from Eastern European companies, picking a suitable market and reliable business partner can be a headache. A new quarterly publication is hoping to point the way for computer makers to reach the right markets.

Microcomputer Marketing, a quarterly report published by Microcomputer Consultants Inc. of Irvine, says that besides the Soviet Union and East Germany, only three East Bloc countries have the potential for developing trade ties with the U.S. personal computer industry: Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

It will be easier for PC makers to enter the three markets as a supplier to local assembly plants, the report advised, because the governments impose high tariffs on assembled computers. More important, certain restrictions imposed by the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls still apply until the countries put in place export control mechanisms suggested by the Paris-based group, which administers export controls for Western countries.

Most personal computers sold in these Eastern European countries are IBM-compatible machines manufactured in the Far East and often assembled by Polish, Hungarian and Czech PC suppliers.