Austria: To Market

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Austria also has some economic difficulties with Communism—but of a quite different character. At the time of the 1955 Austrian State Treaty, it was assigned to the political limbo of everlasting neutrality between East and West. Russia has used the treaty to object to Austria's moves to join Western Europe's Common Market, on which it depends for most of its trade. Last week Austrian Chancellor Josef Klaus decided on some liberalization of his own. Whether or not the Soviet Union likes it, he said, Austria will move to join the Common Market as an associate member. Like many other small nations that trade with Western Europe, it does not want to be left out in the economic cold beyond the wall of common tariffs that is rising around the Market.