American Notes Commerce

Mikhail Gorbachev may not want a summit meeting with Ronald Reagan just yet, < but the Soviet leader sat down last week with U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, who arrived in Moscow for the highest-level U.S.-Soviet trade talks since 1978. Gorbachev told Baldrige it is "high time to defrost the potential of Soviet-American cooperation," but he blamed the limited trade between the two countries on what he called Washington's discriminatory policies and interference in internal Soviet affairs. Afterward, Baldrige emphasized that improvements in trade "will depend on parallel improvements in other aspects of our relations."

Baldrige also spent two days in talks with Soviet Foreign Trade Minister Nikolai Patolichev. Although the Commerce Secretary did not discuss Soviet purchases of strategic materials or technology, he agreed to ask Congress to lift a 34-year-old ban on certain Soviet fur imports. The Soviets agreed to ask their trade organizations not to discriminate against U.S. companies. Though the talks are not expected to bring about a major increase in U.S.-Soviet trade, which now amounts to some $3.85 billion a year, Baldrige called them "a solid start."