Technological Co-operation in Comecon

Abstract

Comecon is a case of an economic grouping where co-operation is not shaped by free market forces but essentially by planning, formal agreements and commitments.¹ Comecon leaders and theoretical writers claim, not unnaturally, that Comecon economic and technological co-operation is of a superior type. It is stressed that under capitalism, although there is some state intervention, economic and technological relations and integration are determined by such financial instruments as tariffs, taxes, subsidies, competition, profitability differentials and by narrow private microeconomic considerations in general. These factors lead to the restructuring of trade, which in turn leads to changes in the patterns of output. As Socialist writers frequently like to stress, these processes are inexorably conditioned by the ‘anarchical market’, often counter to the long-run interests of society, and particularly the less developed member countries.