573 



technology transfers produce long-term advantages for the U.S. econ- 

 omy? The Soviet leadership may be intent on absorbing U.S. tech- 

 nology in as short a time and as inexpensively as possible. Thus, in 

 assessing the net benefit of increasing transfers of technology to the 

 Soviet Union, U.S. policy makers must attempt to answer the ques- 

 tion of whether or not Soviet leaders are reordering priorities toward 

 a civilian economy that is increasingly linked to the world economic 

 system. The question may be raised in different contexts : (1) Do Soviet 

 requirements for U.S. technology require longer periods of commit- 

 ment that was the case in the past? (2) Does the trade agreement rep- 

 resent a part of a new pattern of relationship between the Soviet 

 Union and the United States? and (3) Does the agreement presage a 

 new relationship between the Soviet economy and the non-Communist 

 world economic system? If these questions can be answered affirma- 

 tively, the outlook for political and economic net benefits to the United 

 States will be favorable. 



High Technology Trade and a Pattern of Economic Involvement 



Current Soviet requirements for high technology assistance from 

 the United States appear to represent a pattern of technical and man- 

 agerial interrelatedness that would limit the ability of Soviet leaders 

 to take short-term advantages, borrow technology', and then withdraw 

 from continued U.S.-Soviet economic relations in particular lines. 

 Formal agreements, such as the arrangements with Fiat and Renault 

 in auto and truck production, respectively, extend for a decade. In- 

 formal continuity derives from a continued need for technology trans- 

 fer. Some examples follow : 



(1) Advanced industrial systems. — Several kinds of U.S. technology 

 might be applied in the Soviet Union's oil and natural gas industry : 

 Alaska Northern Slope technology, advanced drilling techniques, 

 transmission and construction materials, and oil recovery systems 

 (especially applicable in the Soviet Union's older Caucasian fields). 

 Presumably, agreements on cooperation in this field will involve a 

 degree of joint managerial responsibility, a definite period of repay- 

 ment — largely in natural gas and oil deliveries — and a continuing 

 technological interdependence. 



(2) Management-Control -Communications /Systems. — The Soviets 

 are clearly interested in advanced American computer and electronic 

 hardware, but they also seem to be interested in the systems that the 

 hardware represents. The Soviet postal, telephone, and telegraph 

 sj'stem will be improved by installation of an electronic message 

 switching system valued at $1.3 million from a French subsidiary of 

 the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. The system 

 will process six million messages a month and will be in operation by 

 the end of 1973. 8C 



Computer-assisted systems would appear to have a wide applica- 

 tion throughout the Soviet economy. The many Soviet managerial 

 service specialists studying the United States may stimulate Soviet 

 interest in this area. European experience suggests that the field is 

 one in which the United States not only has the leadership, but seems 



■* Wall Street Journal, Oct. 23, 1972. 



