Search

This chapter deals with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, established as a parallel to the OEEC by the Eastern European countries. The commonest English abbreviation for this organization is Comecon, but we shall use the officially preferred CMEA. The CMEA was abolished in 1991 and was to be succeeded by the Organization for International Economic Cooperation (OIEC). But at the time of writing no decision was yet taken. This chapter examines first the CMEA, then, briefly the envisaged OIEC.

The implementation of a multilateral trade and payments system was facilitated by the establishment of the Fund and the Bank. It proved more difficult to reach agreement on the reduction of customs duties and the abolition of quantitative restrictions and discriminations, partly owing to the fact that these matters were more closely bound up with balance-of-payments equilibrium. In order to avoid a recurrence of the protectionism of the 1930s vigorous efforts were necessary to dismantle these various kinds of trade barriers. This chapter is devoted to the action taken in this respect within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

On 8 April 1965 the member states of the three European Communities signed the “Merger Treaty” for the amalgamation of the three European “Executives” — the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Commission of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) into a single Commission of the European Communities. At the same time the three Councils of the three Communities were merged into one. Hence, since 1 July 1976 when the Merger Treaty came into force, the unified Commission of the European Commission has taken the only executive authority. Western European economic integration, however, started much earlier in the fifties, on a sectoral level.

Still following the same pattern, this chapter will deal with the origins of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the most important provisions in its Convention and details of operation, concluding with a brief appraisal.

This chapter deals with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, established as a parallel to the OEEC by the Eastern European countries. The commonest English abbreviation for this organization is Comecon, but we shall use the officially preferred CMEA.

In this chapter, we will discuss the theory of comparative cost, the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, the theory of purchasing-power parity and the modern theory of balance-of-payments equilibrium.

The following section deals with the commodity agreements. The one after that concerns UNCTAD, not only because this organization seeks to coordinate negotiations regarding these agreements, but also because it has attracted attention by its tendency to broach numerous subjects of a general nature.