This article deals with technical features of a system of state imposed constraints on the foreign trade of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Poland (including state predecessors of the last three countries 1914–1918) in the period under review. It also analyses modus operandi and a range of applications of implemented policies in order to point out the similarities and differences in a cross-country comparison.

trade protectionism, deglobalization, tariff barriers, Southeast Europe, East-Central Europe