Council for American–Soviet Trade
The Council for American–Soviet Trade was a proposal conceived and authored by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)'s international economic affairs department (IEA) to regularize commercial development between US corporation leaders and Soviet industrial and state-controlled trade organizations. It became the forerunning blueprint for the eventual US-USSR Trade and Economic Council which was formally established in October 1973. Origins The Council for American–Soviet Trade (CAST) was initially proposed in February 1973 following the highly successful US-Soviet Trade Conference organized by the NAM in Washington at the Shoreham Hotel. With over 800 delegates and a high-level Soviet delegation led by Vice Minister of Foreign Trade V.S. Alkhimov, this conference was the largest gathering of its kind. CAST was designed in response to an official protocol which emerged from President Nixon's summit with Soviet premier Leonid Breznev during the Soviet leader's visit to Washington in June 1973. NAM's East-West Task Force had hosted a luncheon for Soviet Foreign Trade Minister N.S. Patolichev at the Washington International Club on June 22 during the Summit which reinforced the prominent role of NAM in the development of a permanent organizational mechanism. Soviet leadership had been impressed by NAM's follow-up including a June 1 meeting in