United States Trade Eastern Europe

Technology companies large and small said Thursday that they stand to profit from the Clinton Administration's decision to ease limits on sales of some computers and telecommunications gear to former communist bloc nations.

Technology companies large and small said Thursday that they stand to profit from the Clinton Administration's decision to ease limits on sales of some computers and telecommunications gear to former communist bloc nations.

The United States and its major allies agreed Thursday on a sweeping overhaul of Western restrictions on high-technology exports to nations of the former Soviet Bloc, easing the way for the sale of billions of dollars of equipment to help modernize Eastern Europe.

The Clinton Administration lifted export restrictions Wednesday on the sale of most commercial computer and telecommunications equipment to Russia, Eastern Europe and China, closing a chapter in the Cold War and giving U.S. manufacturers access to billions of dollars of business a year.

East Bloc consumers recognize a wide range of Western brand names even though many of the products have not been actively marketed or may not be available in their countries, a survey says. But many U.S. brands ranked much lower on quality than on name recognition, raising disturbing questions for American exporters. The lagging quality perception could give Japanese and Western European competitors an advantage.

President Bush's top advisers are withholding final approval of a plan to relax restrictions of Western exports of strategically sensitive goods to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union until the Soviets resolve the Lithuanian secession crisis.

Foreign Trade Minister Bela Kadar returned to Hungary in a nervous fluster from his most recent U.S. visit. American banks and investors, he informed his worried countrymen, seem to be writing off Eastern Europe as a bad risk. In neighboring Czechoslovakia, a much-touted visit by President Bush lifted spirits only fleetingly on the first anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution." Deflated crowds dispersed in silence after learning there was little money inside the Americans' birthday card.

In the first substantive Democratic response to the upheaval in Eastern Europe, House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt on Tuesday outlined a broad program for U.S. assistance to the emerging democracies in what used to be the Soviet orbit and to the Soviet Union itself.

The agreement reached Friday by the United States and its allies to reduce export controls on high-tech equipment sold to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has disappointed many U.S. technology manufacturers that had hoped for even greater business opportunities with the emerging economies of Eastern Europe. In fact, according to some U.S.

Poor, polluted Eastern Europe wants the best environmental cleanup that very little money can buy. The ecologically sophisticated new leaders in the old East Bloc admire U.S. environmental technology--particularly from cutting-edge California. U.S. companies are equally attracted to the tattered postcard cities and countryside of a region in which decades of coal-based, inefficient energy use--with almost no environmental controls--have left a startling legacy of contamination.

The agreement reached Friday by the United States and its allies to reduce export controls on high-tech equipment sold to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has disappointed many U.S. technology manufacturers that had hoped for even greater business opportunities with the emerging economies of Eastern Europe. In fact, according to some U.S.

The United States and its major allies have agreed on a plan to cut by half the list of high-technology products--from computers to airliners--that they will block from shipment to the Soviet Union, the White House announced Friday.

SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s foray into Eastern Europe begins today as it takes control of Yugoslavia's leading drug manufacturer, Galenika Pharmaceuticals Inc. The new subsidiary, called ICN Galenika, is a joint venture with SPI owning 75% and Galenika, a state-owned company with a smattering of other small industrial ventures, retaining a 25% interest. Three of the company's four directors will come from SPI, while Dr.

Eastern Europe may not be the boundless market for U.S. products that many manufacturers envision, a new study suggests. Consumers in the region want U.S. fast food and Japanese electronics but hope to buy most other goods from Western European producers, according to a survey of 600 people in Czechoslovakia, eastern Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Foreign Trade Minister Bela Kadar returned to Hungary in a nervous fluster from his most recent U.S. visit. American banks and investors, he informed his worried countrymen, seem to be writing off Eastern Europe as a bad risk. In neighboring Czechoslovakia, a much-touted visit by President Bush lifted spirits only fleetingly on the first anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution." Deflated crowds dispersed in silence after learning there was little money inside the Americans' birthday card.

The United States and its major allies have agreed on a plan to cut by half the list of high-technology products--from computers to airliners--that they will block from shipment to the Soviet Union, the White House announced Friday.

Sometime in September, a freighter will cruise into the West German port of Hamburg stacked with eight 40-foot containers of electrical equipment from San Diego County. The cargo will be loaded onto flatbed trucks or rail cars, hauled almost 300 miles to the Czech village of Raspenava and housed in a shiny new factory. And therein lies one of the more remarkable tales in the annals of East-West trade. "I'll be there to usher the ship to harbor," jokes W.

East Bloc consumers recognize a wide range of Western brand names even though many of the products have not been actively marketed or may not be available in their countries, a survey says. But many U.S. brands ranked much lower on quality than on name recognition, raising disturbing questions for American exporters. The lagging quality perception could give Japanese and Western European competitors an advantage.