Trade: Bullish on the Russian Bear

In recent years the chill in Washington-Moscow relations has turned the annual meetings of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council into a littlenoticed and lightly attended affair. But last week, in search of a bonanza, Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige and more than 400 U.S. business leaders descended on Moscow for this year's meeting. Last year trade between the two countries amounted to only $3.9 billion, mostly in grain shipments from the U.S. Yet the executives got a jolt of optimism from last month's summit talks between President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They came to Moscow in the hope that...