A Study Of The Soviet-American Economic And Trade Relations During From 1933 To 1941

The Soviet-American relations from the establishment of diplomatic relations to the outbreak of Soviet-German War (1933-1941) was of great significance in the history of the relationship between the two countries, even in the whole history of world. So to speak, from 1933 to 1941, the economic and trade cooperation between Soviet and the U.S. whose social system and ideology were entirely different not only provided the underlying basis for the final victory of the Second World War and the formation of the Allies, but also offered practical experience for the two countries to make policies against each other. But as far as the author knows, the most scholars put their research emphasis on the Cold War period, and paid little attention to bilateral relations, especially to the economic and trade relations during this period. This paper takes the Soviet-American economic and trade relations from 1933 to 1941 as an object of study, tries to sort out the whole story on loan negotiations, trade activities and technology imports between the two countries, and finally gives an objective evaluation.This paper is divided into four parts:In the first part, it surveys the development of the Soviet-American economic and trade relations in 1920s, and discusses the obstruction of the economic and trade relations between the two countries due to the non-recognition attitude of America. So, it is believed that the economic motivations which pushed forward the establishment of diplomatic relations of the two countries were American economic crisis and Soviet industrialization.From 1917 to 1933, there was no diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Soviet, but the trade activities still exist. This is because the Soviet remains reciprocal trade with the U.S. Although American government announced the withdrawal of economic blockade to the Soviet in July,1920, it still launches the discriminatory and restrictive policy which is manifested mainly in prohibiting the import of Soviet's gold, refusing to provide a long-term loan to the Soviet, levying the special anti-dumping duties on many Soviet goods and so on. This attitude led to decline sharply volume of trade between the U.S. and Soviet. In 1929, the outbreak of global economic crisis dealt the U.S., what caused a shrinking home market and the exclusion of other capitalist countries. So, America was eager to find a selling market for large quantities of surplus industrial products. Then, Soviet was also eager to import American advanced technology and equipment. It can clearly be seen that the normalization of the Soviet-American relations was not only the urgent need of the two countries in economy, but also was the premise to promote the stable development of bilateral trade.In the second part, it gives an outline of the situation to solve the problem of debts and loans before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Soviet. Then, it expounds the negotiations after the establishment of diplomatic relations about leftover problems of the two countries, and analyses the negative influence of negotiations which broke down to the development of bilateral trade.Before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Soviet, the problem of debts and loans had already mentioned many times at the international conferences and the negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as a key factor which obstructed the Soviet-American diplomatic relations. On November 7th to 16th,1933, at the meeting of negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the two sides started a comprehensive, detailed negotiation. After the establishment of diplomatic relations, the negotiations on the problem of debts and loans can be divided into two phase:from February 1934 to January 1935; from December 1937 to July 1938. In April 1934, the Johnson Act linked to the problem of debts and loans. The controversy was centered on the problems of the amount of debts, the provision of cash loans or commodity loans, repayment terms and loan interest. Finally, the two countries failed to agree. The shelving of the problem of debts and loans insurmountable obstacle for Soviet to get the American loans, restricted the import of Soviet from the U.S., and affected the normal expansion of the Soviet-American trade.In the third part, it discusses that the relations of the Soviet-American trade which affected by the political relations underwent the process of developmental changes of three stages:rewarm period, stabilization period and conflict period. Then, it summarizes trade situation of each stage and analyses many reasons of this situation to form.The establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Soviet made the two countries look forward to the prospect of the Soviet-American trade relations under legitimate circumstances. The American government once had set out to cancel the rules on restricting normal trade with Soviet. At the same time, the business circles of the U.S. paid high attention to develop trade relations with Soviet. But after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the American government brought Soviet into the range of application of the Johnson Act, delayed in granting Soviet treatment as a most favored nation. So, the volume of trade between the two countries did not appear the situation of leap as expected, and bounced back until 1935. From 1936 to 1938, due to the detente of the Soviet-American political relations, the trade relations between the two countries had also developed stably. Through the joint efforts of the two countries, bilateral trade achieved a certain degree of development which was manifested in the rapid development of the number of the companies configuring the orders, the amount of orders, and the total volume of trade. However, some factors still restricted the normal expansion of the Soviet-American trade this period. For example, the unbalanced trade between the two countries, failing to implement a preference treatment on the import of parts of Russia goods and the recession of American economy. Owing to the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939 and the annexation of the three countries of the Baltic Sea, the Soviet-American relations deteriorated gradually, and the U.S. returned to the discriminatory policy on the Soviet's trade. From 1938 to 1940, influenced by American trade sanctions on Soviet, the volume of trade between the two countries showed like the letter V. Russia imports from the U.S. in 1939 had showed the first fall since 1933, and Soviet's exports to the U.S. in 1940 had fallen again since 1938.In the fourth part, it expounds the concrete conditions of Soviet's technology imports from the U.S., summarizes the accomplishment of Soviet's economy and national defense construction through technology imports, and discusses some deficiencies in the process of implement the technology agreement.For the realization of socialist industrialization, Soviet imported American advanced technology and equipment comprehensively and sweepingly. And, for selling large quantities of surplus industrial products, the U.S. also provided technology support actively. Soviet imported American technology by means of technology agreements signed with American corporations, sending leading cadres and technical personnel to the U.S. for study, and hiring American experts to guide. The Soviet government paid much attention to the execution of technology agreement, what ensured the realization of most technology imports. But due to the inexperience of leading cadres, technical personnel and the underestimation of some potential difficulties, Soviet experienced lots of frustrations in the process of implementing technology agreement. Meanwhile, American corporations also affected the successful execution of technology agreement by the deadline of supplies and the quantity of equipment.In a word, the Soviet-American economic and trade relations from 1933 to 1941 not only reflects that the change of political relations affected economic and trade relations, but also shows that economic complementarity was the characteristics of trade development and interest between the two countries, what boosted the recovery and development of economy between the U.S. and Soviet.