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hearing
Soviet Involvement in the Polish Economy
Thursday, April 01, 1982Commissioner Dante B. Fascell chaired this hearing, the purpose of which was to review the record of Soviet involvement in the planning, direction, and operation of the Polish economy. Before the time of this hearing, Soviet involvement in the Polish economy had been the source of much speculation. More specifically, Poland’s economy was functioning poorly, but it was debated whether the fault of this lay more with Poland itself or more with the U.S.S.R. What was hoped to be achieved in the hearing, then, was to shed light on the issue of how Soviet involvement affected the Polish economy, specifically based on the personal experience of one of Poland’s leading economists and a former government official, Ambassador Zdzislaw Rurarz.
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hearing
East-West Economic Cooperation-Basket II-Helsinki Final Act
Thursday, January 13, 1977Our immediate business is to look at Basket IT, whose scope is greater than mere questions of trade and commerce, because in many ways politics is economics. Basket IT was designed to enhance economic cooperation among CSCE states in a way to loosen restraints inhibiting dealings between the Soviet bloc and the West. The hearing will offer suggestions on resolving problems of trade with eastern CSCE states; and how the U.S. Government deals with Basket II problems and how it can improve the overall trade picture by exploiting Basket II provisions in order to bolster East-West trade initiatives.
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Twitter
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Economic Cooperation and Trade
In the Final Document of the Bonn Conference of April 1990, the participating States "[r]ecognize[d] that the performance of market-based economies relies primarily on the freedom of individual enterprise and the consequent economic growth." They also recognized "the relationship between political pluralism and market economies."
The OSCE does not promote trade specifically, but seeks to build within the participating States better regulatory and governance capacity so that corruption, excessive bureaucracy or other barriers to trade do not hinder economic cooperation.
In the Maastricht (2003) strategy document for the Economic and Environmental Dimension, the participating States recognized the importance of global and regional economic integration, and for the "establishment in the OSCE region of open and integrated markets functioning on the basis of compatible or harmonized rules and further liberalization."
The OSCE works closely with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to coordinate economic cooperation activities in the region to amplify the work of the UNECE and to avoid duplication of efforts.
Recently, “connectivity” has become a key term of art in the OSCE space, describing efforts to build effective customs services and cross-border tools that facilitate trade between participating States. Corruption is a key impediment to connectivity.
Staff Contact: Paul Massaro, policy advisor