Foreign trade as a means of division of labour in a modern, globalized world has irreplaceable significance for every economy. This of course is particular by the case for small states with relatively advanced industry but a limited internal market, such as the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia. The stability of the Czechoslovak economy always depended directly on the effectiveness and success of foreign trade, since the above-mentioned factors amplified the problems of a limited raw material base for extensive industry (Czechoslovakia was self-sufficient only in fuel). Industry, which became established during the Dual Monarchy, was geared to service the more than 50 million-strong market of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Small Czechoslovakia was forced to export a substantial part of its production and traditionally used exports to pay not only for imported goods, especially necessary raw materials, but also for food and various services (the so-called invisible trade, that is patents and licences, import of capital, tourism, transport, etc.). As the overall balance of services was always passive for Czechoslovakia, a trade surplus became indispensable.

Czechoslovak foreign trade after the end of the Second World War continued the tradition of its pre-war development. The economy, which up to 1948 functioned as a market economy in principle, naturally had to overcome the problems of the altered balance of power in Europe and the economic status of its traditional trade partners. The two biggest, Germany and Austria, temporarily lost their pivotal Central European economic positions and Czechoslovakia was forced to look for a replacement.