If nothing else, we were restricted from buying several foreign currencies at anything other than extortionate rates. A lot of trade deals also insisted on libe

If nothing else, we were restricted from buying several foreign currencies at anything other than extortionate rates. A lot of trade deals also insisted on liberalising to some degree or other, which would have (and did, after 89) damaged the local economy. Without trade deals a lot of commodities are so expensive they might as well be banned. Later on China and Vietnam did manage to negotiate an in-between position with some markets and some free trade (and in the case of Vietnam even IMF loans), but with workers as a class maintaining control of the state and significant parts of the economy continuing to be mostly planned by state-owned enterprises.