Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!pogo!curtc
From: curtc@pogo.GPID.TEK.COM (Curtis Charles)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: I'm pro Russian
Message-ID: <6386@pogo.GPID.TEK.COM>
Date: 2 Dec 88 19:47:53 GMT
References: <5569@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> <2067@garth.UUCP>
Reply-To: curtc@pogo.GPID.TEK.COM (Curtis Charles)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville,  OR.
Lines: 61

In article <2067@garth.UUCP> smryan@garth.UUCP (Steven Ryan) writes:
>Next you'll be telling us if you cut a Russian, they'll bleed.

...and 'cause they're commies, they probably bleed RED too!

Last year I did a term paper (in a grad level international marketing
class) on (ta da) Trade with the Soviet Union.  The US trades with the
USSR to a much greater extent than you'd imagine.  You can buy
Coke-a-Cola in Moscow.  You can buy a Big Mac in Leningrad.  A great
number of the oil field supplies used in the Soviet oil patch are
designed and produced by American companies.  But these commodities are
a drop in the bucket compared to US agricultural exports to the USSR
(no, wheat isn't #1; corn is!).

The most interesting findings of my study were:
1)  The Russians are very good at paying their bills, and there is very
    little country risk due to a very stable government.
2)  The Russian market is virtually untapped, and is hungry for
    American goods.  (Levi's draw $100 in Moscow!)
3)  The Russians are a pain to deal with.  What takes a week to close
    in Cincinatti takes 6-8 months to close in Moscow.  They change the
    rules (bid on this, deliver that), and probably drive the hardest
    bargains in the world.  Counter trade is factored into almost all
    deals (sure, we'll buy 100,000 gallons of Coke syrup, but you've got
    to take 25,000 pairs of size 42 dungarees in exchange!)  Also, how
    does one place a value on a square block of Tblisi?  Or in a
    workers time?  Or on a factory in Moscow?  (This is a problem
    because free market competitive factors aren't setting the prices,
    the government is.  So how do you compare the governments prices to
    those elsewhere to figure out if the deal is OK?)
4)  Petrostroika has opened up the possibility of joint ventures.  The
    ground rules were that the venture had to be 51% owned by the USSR,
    couldn't break any Soviet labor laws, and had to be managed by
    Soviet citizens.  It could make deals outside of the USSR, or sell
    to the internal market.
5)  The US exports mostly agricultural (read renewable) products to the
    USSR, while the USSR exports mostly mineral resources (read non-
    renewable).
6)  The Russians try hard to import as much know-how as possible,
    especially in the areas of (surprise) international banking and
    marketing.  They are also interested in western business planning
    methods.  (The joint ventures are designed to squeeze both know-how
    and capital out of the deal.)

Business with the USSR is definately worth the hassle.  The size of the
market is enormous, and the rewards and tremendous.

USENET access with the Russians?  Sure, why not.  Perhaps through this
kind of communication we can start to dispel the myth that the Russians
are blood thirsty killers with knives at our throats.

You can bet a shot of Vodka that the KGB and CIA will both be listening
in though.  (In fact, if you subscribe to Pravda here in the states,
our very own CIA will send you a monthly postcard (alternatively in
English and Russian) telling you that they know!)  So what!  I haven't
seen any really sensitive info go over the net; it's mostly just
smalltalk (no caps :-).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Curt Charles              | "Let our swords run red with the blood of
curtc@pogo.GPID.TEK.COM   | infidels..."    Sean Connery