Organization
Under the Czechoslovak system, foreign trade was a state monopoly, supervised by the central Ministry of Foreign Trade. The ministry oversaw the operation of about thirty foreign trade enterprises. As intermediaries between the domestic export producers or import purchasers and the external market, the enterprises were responsible for arranging contracts as well as for financing and generally supervising Czechoslovak foreign trade, usually setting prices that have little connection with domestic production factors.
The foreign trade companies bought Czechoslovak goods for export at domestic prices and sold foreign goods to Czechoslovak customers at domestic prices; but the other half of these transactions, involving actual foreign trade, took place in foreign currencies in foreign markets. The government budget then made adjustments to compensate for any unwanted gains and losses caused by varying foreign and domestic prices.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Trade Of Communist Czechoslovakia
Famous quotes containing the word organization:
“To fight oppression, and to work as best we can for a sane organization of society, we do not have to abandon the state of mind of freedom. If we do that we are letting the same thuggery in by the back door that we are fighting off in front of the house.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.”
—Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
“Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.”
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931)