P.M. BRIEFING : East Germans Can Keep Markets

BERLIN — Nearly 2,000 companies in the former East Germany will be able to keep their export markets in the Soviet Union and other East European countries under measures announced today.

Exports to the ruble-based trading bloc were economic mainstays of East Germany before it united with West Germany in October. But the conversion to the West German mark had threatened to put an end to such business, depriving wobbly economies in the east of their traditional source of modern equipment.

Officials of the Treuhandanstalt, the trust agency charged with disposing of most of the former state-owned assets of East Germany, said the government-backed Hermes export insurance agency will support, under certain conditions, new contracts that companies in eastern Germany are able to make with Soviet or other East European customers.