East German Foreign Trade (1956-85) East Germany’s external economic relations showed both its strong trade dependency on the Soviet Union, the dominant player in COMECON, and its politically willed isolation from international markets. From the 1970s onward, East Germany – like nearly all COMECON states – expanded its trade with the West to close gaps in its domestic market and to acquire the technology it lacked.
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page 1 of 1 Regional Breakdown of GDR Foreign Trade (Percentages) Country or country category Five-Year Average 1956-60 1961-65 1966-71 1971-75 1976-80 1981-85 Imports Socialist countries 72.7 75.9 72.2 64.9 65.9 66.9 Of these:   COMECON countries 65.4 71.6 68.4 62.1 62.8 64.1 USSR 43.6 47.5 42.3 33.9 35.2 40.4 Remaining COMECON countries 21.8 24.1 26.1 28.2 27.7 23.7 Western industrial countries 23.3 20.1 23.9 30.9 29.0 28.9 Developing countries 4.0 3.9 3.9 4.0 5.1 4.2 Exports Socialist countries 75.9 76.9 74.6 72.7 72.6 64.9 Of these:   COMECON countries 68.3 72.9 69.3 68.9 68.9 62.3 USSR 43.0 44.7 39.9 36.6 35.2 36.2 Remaining COMECON countries 25.3 28.2 29.5 32.3 33.7 26.1 Western industrial countries 20.3 18.9 20.8 23.2 21.9 29.3 Developing countries 3.8 4.1 4.6 4.1 5.5 5.8 Source: Federal Ministry for Inter-German Relations, ed., Materialien zum Bericht zur Lage der Nation im geteilten Deutschland [Materials Accompanying the Report on the State of the Nation in a Divided Germany]. Bonn, 1987, p. 607.
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