Cuba & Soviet Union: Trade Pattern Pitfalls (1970-1988)

Abstract

This article analyzes the interaction between the Soviet Union and Cuba, the bilateral trade in sugar and nickel ores as well as direct assistance of the USSR to the Castro regime. The scholars investigate the dependence of the Cuban economy on economic cooperation with the Soviet Union and indicate that the pattern of bilateral trade was extremely harmful to Cuba since Havana took advantage of the artificial steady demand for the main components of Cuban exports from the USSR and other Comecon countries. The researchers point out that such a model of trade was one of the key factors that doomed the State’s economy to a severe economic crisis of the 1990-s and left Cuba behind other Latin American economies even the extremely depended on a particular resource export, ones such as Chile and Venezuela in terms of economic development.