Points of Friction

Abstract

Hungary had to pay a price, not only for antagonizing the western powers, but also for joining with other soviet-bloc countries in condemning and ostracizing Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia. A trade agreement made between the two countries the year before was about to expire and Belgrade evinced no interest in renewing it. Hungary faced the prospect of losing large quantities of timber and iron provided for in the agreement as well as the disappearance of Yugoslav markets for its finished products. A study prepared in the Hungarian Workers’ Party (MDP) secretariat estimated that the country would be left with $5.1 million worth of finished goods that it could not sell anywhere else. There was also the possibility that Yugoslavia would close the harbors of Rijeka and Trieste to Hungarian goods. In such a case, the study stated, talks would have to be initiated with Poland for the use of Gdynia harbor and with Rumania for sending goods through Constance on the Black Sea. The USSR might be persuaded to make up the loss of timber and Czechoslovakia the loss of iron after the lapse of the treaty with Yugoslavia.¹