Based on archival research and, to a large extent, unpublished secondary sources, this paper analyzes the problem of allocating Czechoslovak goods between exports to the CMEA and Western markets and domestic needs. It argues that the problems of Czechoslovak external trade were caused by the inability of the economy to adjust to the changed conditions in world markets (e.g. the 1973 oil shock, emergence of the so-called Asian tigers, etc.) and by the internal parameters of Czechoslovakia's economy..