Suchergebnisse

The author analyses three different phases in Finland's trade policy: the liberalization of her Western trade in 1957, her association with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the related Agreement on Customs Matters with the Soviet Union in 1960- 61, and her negotiations and agreements with the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) of the Socialist countries in 1970-73. The failure of the Nordic Common Market (NORDEK) is also briefly touched upon. All these negotiations and the ensuing solutions have been characterized in the Finnish debate as the most important trade policy decisions after the Second World War. They have affected the structural framework of Finnish economic relations with the other European countries and in this sense have been 'politicized'. They have been Finnish reactions to the changes in her immediate international environment and have thus supplemented the other facets of her foreign policy in the European context. They are also solutions to the problem of reconciling the requirements of an extensive trade with the planned Socialist economies in a market economy country, where the various aspects of foreign, internal and economic policies are deeply interlocked.