К вопросу о развитии торгово-экономических отношений Беларуси с зарубежными странами (1971 - 1985 гг.)

Abstract

The topicality of the article lies in the changes that Belarusian society underwent at the end of the 80s—the beginning of the 90s and in the necessity to give the scientific analysis of the potential gained and to critically revise the existing stereotypes in studying some of the aspects of the development of the trade and economic relations of Belarus with other states.The author compares the dynamics of the USSR and BSSR international trade and economic turnover in the last 15 years and comes to the conclusion that the republic, while outstripping the national GDP growth rate, was 200 % behind in foreign trade growth rate. Thus, its potential in international markets entry was not fully realized and the level of participation in the international division of labour was extremely low. At the same time, the article provides the corresponding data to prove the fact that the integration of Belarus into the USSR economy was very high. The BSSR trade balance with foreign countries was adverse. The author cites the traditional explanation first: the construction and modernization of enterprises in the republic; he also gives the statistics that shows that the leading positions in import were taken by agricultural products, the light and food industries. The reasons for such a situation can be found in structural disproportion in the development of certain branches of economy and large deliveries of consumer goods and food from Belarus to other republics of the Soviet Union. The article recognizes the role of foreign equipment in the development of the Belarusian economy with the stress on its not always efficient use and on some part of imported equipment having been outdated. The BSSR main trade partners were European member-states of the COMECON. The author defines the consequences of this for the current development of Belarus. While describing the export nomenclature, the author shows the predominance of high technology produce, mainly of the chemical and engineering industries, which proves the high level of Belarus industrialization. However, the engineering products were exported to the socialist and the developing countries but not to the world leaders in technology. This fact proves that many goods produced in the BSSR did not meet the requirements of the world market.