Quayle Vows U.S. Push for Markets for Eastern Europe
Vice President Dan Quayle promised Thursday that the United States will press Western nations to open their markets to former East Bloc countries suffering from a collapse in exports to the Soviet Union.
Speaking to a symposium of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Quayle said that lowering the trade barriers will be a “top priority” during next month’s economic summit in London of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies.
Quayle is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Poland since the collapse of the Communist government in August, 1989.
Since the East Bloc trade organization Comecon switched to hard-currency transactions in January, eastern Germany and its five former allies have seen their exports to the Soviets collapse.
Although Soviet buyers would still like to acquire Eastern European goods, they cannot obtain hard currency.
In Poland, for example, exports to the Soviets have been reduced by 60%. The former system had permitted goods to be bartered, with their values denominated in rubles.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
