General Conditions of Delivery

(1) The norms that regulate foreign trade deliveries between the economic organizations of various socialist states. Since Jan. 1, 1969, the General Conditions of Delivery of 1968 have been in effect among the countries belonging to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). The USSR has also concluded bilateral general conditions of delivery with a number of socialist countries that are not members of COMECON, including the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Korean People’s Democratic Republic, and the Chinese People’s Republic; a similar bilateral agreement is in effect between the USSR and Cuba, which joined COMECON in 1972. As international agreements, bilateral general conditions of delivery are binding on all economic organizations within the countries involved.

(2) The general conditions of delivery used in trade between the economic organizations of socialist countries and firms in capitalist states differ from those that apply in relations exclusively between organizations of socialist countries. The general conditions of delivery for such commodities as machinery and equipment or pine lumber, worked out within the UN Economic Commission for Europe with the participation of the USSR, apply to a transaction only if actually referred to in the contract. General conditions of delivery are employed in international trade by various associations of merchants and firms in order to standardize contracts. Such conditions are not normative in nature; they are actually standard contracts intended to facilitate negotiations and ordinarily reinforce existing commercial custom.