Financial control over all export transactions is maintained
through the licensing system and through implementation of existing
exchange-control regulations.
Strict bilateral trade agreements with almost all members of the
Soviet bloc have constituted, in effect, a financial ceiling on
exports to Eastern Europe. Italian exports to Communist China, with
whom there is no trade agreement, must be paid for in hard currency or
must be exchanged for goods acceptable to the Italian Government, an
arrangement that has severely restricted Italo-Chinese trade. Italian
exchange control regulations would not normally permit payment for
imports from the Soviet bloc in hard currencies, although sterling is
occasionally used in payment for the few items not included in the
trade agreements. In certain instances ship charters are completed for
sterling when circumstances warrant or it is considered convenient.