U.S.-U.S.S.R. BILATERAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL MARITIME 
DEVELOPMENTS 
(By Robert J. Blackwell’) 
BACKGROUND 
In April of 1971 Premier Kosygin in his report on the current 
Soviet 5 Year Plan, expressed a desire to expand commercial relations 
with the industrially developed capitalist countries of Europe. He then 
remarked, ‘“‘Nor do we rule out developing economic relations with 
the United States of America to a point where their extent would 
be more consistent with the economic potential of the two countries.” 
When this change in political and economic climate between the 
United States and the Soviet Union occurred, a mutual desire for 
expanded trade between them ensued, and it was logical that coopera- 
tion in the area of maritime transport, a prime element in the expan- 
sion of trade, would follow in the effort to facilitate the movement 
of goods between the two countries. 
There had occurred a number of official and unofficial maritime 
contacts between the two nations over a period of 10 years, but 
prior to the political and economic change hinted at in Kosygin’s 
remark, the relatively few commercial transactions between the Soviet 
Union and the United States had been handled on an ad hoc basis 
and there was uncertainty as to access to ports and an unnecessarily 
long and complicated port clearance procedure in both countries, 
to name but two serious hindrances to a routine, regularized trading 
environment. 
It had to be recognized on both sides that a maritime agreement 
would be mutually beneficial. The Soviets realized that a maritime 
agreement would provide them continuing access to U.S. feed grains 
critical to their plans to increase the protein content of the Russian 
diet. They realized that future access to a broader range of American 
goods and services would also be fostered and the U.S.S.R. would 
gain cargoes for its rapidly expanding merchant fleet. The United 
States realized a shipping agreement would facilitate the export of 
surplus grain crops to a new market and that these sales would con- 
tribute to the U.S. balance-of-payments position as would the sale 
of the broader range of commodities that would be exported to the 
U.S.S.R. in the future. In addition, the use of U.S.-flag ships rather 
than third flag vessels would reduce the outflow of U.S. dollars and 
the development of a new market would increase job opportunities 
in shipping and agriculture as well as in other sectors of the economy. 
At a meeting held in July 1969 between representatives of the 
Ministry of the Soviet Maritime Fleet and the U.S. Maritime Adminis- 
tration, Mr. Timofey Guzhenko, who was made Merchant Marine 
'1The author is Assistant Secretary for Maritime Affairs of the Department of Commerce. 
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