Pioneering the European Détente: Socialist Poland’s Involvement with GATT and the EEC, 1957–67

The paper analyses the creation of socialist Poland’s foreign and foreign economic policies from 1957 to 1967, focusing on the country’s involvement with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the European Economic Community (EEC). It argues that for the Polish policymakers, the interest in accession to GATT went beyond economic benefits such as alleviating the EEC’s protectionism and securing better terms for exports to the Common Market. Joining the Agreement was also important for the political goals of Polish diplomacy and was considered a part of a general drive for rapprochement with the West and implementation of the principle of peaceful coexistence. Redefining the scope of foreign policy, Polish diplomats attempted to embed Poland in a network of international interdependency and wanted to see the country as a pioneer of the East–West détente.