Engineering products remained important in Finland's export to the Soviet Union, but in the 1970s Finland also carried out large construction projects in the Soviet Union. In the 1980s more than half of the export to the Soviet Union consisted of consumption goods. The bulk – about 80 per cent – of imports from the Soviet Union was crude oil.
The barter arrangement facilitated Finland's adjustment to the oil shocks of the 1970's and the early 1980's, because the increased oil bill could be paid for with Finnish industrial products. However, the barter arrangement also made some Finnish industries very vulnerable to the fate of the Soviet economy.