Word: bartering
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...worst is yet to come. Cuba relies on the East bloc for about 90% of its imports and exports. This trade is based mainly on barter, not cash, and on terms heavily skewed in Cuba's favor: the Soviets, for example, buy Cuban sugar at about four times the market price. But as East bloc countries move toward free-market economies, they are seriously reassessing their ties with Cuba, which cannot pay in the hard currency that Western customers offer...
...paths to reform, most countries in the region stand to gain if Czechoslovakia's effort to revamp or abolish Comecon makes any headway at the organization's meeting in Sofia this week. Since intra-bloc commerce claims an average of 70% of each country's trade, replacing the noncompetitive barter system with bilateral, hard-currency agreements could free industries to turn their attention to non-Comecon nations. Historically, the Comecon system has encouraged inefficiency, low-quality production and poor planning. "It made each country in the bloc more anxious to consume than to produce," says Hans-Heinz Kopietz...