German-Soviet Commercial Agreement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The German-Soviet Commercial Agreement (also referred to as the Nazi-Soviet Trade Agreement, see the external reference below) was an economic arrangement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed on August 19, 1939. It was negotiated during talks between Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Germany granted the Soviet Union a merchandise credit of 200 million Reichsmarks to be financed by the German Golddiskontbank. This loan would be 100% guaranteed by the German government and entail an interest rate of 5%; extremely favorable terms at the time.
The credit was to be used to finance Soviet orders in Germany to include machinery, manufactured goods, war materials and hard currency.
The credit was to be repaid by Soviet raw materials with delivery to start immediately upon signature. Such materials would include items vital to the German military, notably phosphate, platinum, petroleum, cotton and feed grain. The Soviet Union also agreed to act as an intermediary in order to procure war material Germany needed but that the Soviets could not indigenously produce.
Germany credited the trade pact with significantly weakening the British naval blockade that had been established after Germany's invasion of Poland.
[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
- A description of the agreement by Dr. Karl Schnurre, Head of the Eastern European and Baltic Section of the Commercial Policy Dlvision of the German Foreign Office (according to http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/persons.htm), written 10 days after the signing of the agreement: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/ns059.htm .
 |
This economics or finance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
