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The Soviets sold none of their 80 h.p., four-passenger Moskvitch autos, which face stiff tariffs and quotas designed to protect local assembly plants for Fords, Volvos, Mercedes and Volkswagens. Boxy Soviet transistor radios, at $33, and 35-mm. cameras, at $59, were competitive with Japanese products in. price but not in style. Tractors brought in for demonstrations had the embarrassing habit of breaking down; the Soviets sold only about $80,000 worth of them, even though the salesmen quoted prices 20% to 25% lower than those of Japanese or U.S. models and offered two-year credits. Some items were a shade more successful. The men from Moscow found local agents for their machine tools and pumps and an agent for "Tibet Medicine," a mix of deer-antler shavings used by the Chinese as an aphrodisiac. *
Basis for Deal. Moscow's trade drive is also aimed at Singapore, the traditional economic middleman of the region and a potential entrepot for Soviet goods. There the Soviets have sold about $10 million worth of cotton fabrics, machine tools, paper and canned food, and are negotiating to set up a $3,000,000 watch factory. The Singapore-Soviet Shipping Agency Ltd., a joint venture with local Chinese, acts as agent for some 50 Russian ships that ply Far Eastern waters monthly and offers cargo rates 25% below those of many other nations. Consequently, Soviet ships carry coffee to Hong Kong and Japan and timber from Malaysia and Indonesia to Mediterranean ports.
In Indonesia, the Russians are anxious to recoup old losses. During Sukarno's reign, they provided Indonesia with $523 million worth of aid to equip the armed forces. Since Sukarno was ousted in 1967, Indonesia has turned bitterly antiCommunist, but it still would like to trade with the Russians. The air force is virtually grounded for want of Soviet spare parts, and only 30% of the navy is operative. The Soviets have offered $25 million in aid to complete a steel mill, an atomic reactor and a fertilizer plant, plus fresh investment in fisheries and tin and bauxite mines. There is a major catch: Moscow insists that Djakarta first repay its debt with interest —a total of $799 million—which Indonesia patently cannot afford to do. Last week, despite the desire of both sides to reach an accord, a Soviet mission returned to Moscow after 37 days of hard bargaining, having achieved only an agreement to confer again.
* It does not work.