Reuters - 03.12.03

 

U.S. Moves to Repeal Cold War Trade Rule

By Doug Palmer 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the backing of the Bush administration, the U.S. Senate's foreign policy chief on Monday introduced a bill to repeal a Cold War provision that has long linked U.S. trade relations with Russia to emigration concerns.

The move to establish "permanent normal trade relations" with Russia comes as U.S. President George W. Bush is trying to win Moscow's support for a new UN Security Council resolution that would give Iraq a March 17 deadline to disarm or face invasion.

Bush needs nine votes out of the 15-member UN Security Council -- and no vetoes from France, Russia or China -- to get the resolution through.

A spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Richard Lugar, said introduction of the bill to repeal the "Jackson-Vanik" provision for Russia was deliberately timed to coincide with the UN debate.

It follows the Senate's unanimous vote last week to approve a treaty that slashes the United States' and Russia's deployed nuclear weapons by two-thirds over 10 years and places them in storage, the spokesman said.

In a statement, Lugar said the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment was no longer needed to ensure Jews and other minorities could emigrate freely from Russia. 

"Over the years, [Jackson-Vanik] has been an effective tool to promote free emigration, but its continuing applicability to Russia no longer makes sense," the Indiana Republican said. "Since 1994, successive [U.S.] administrations have found Russia in full compliance with the requirements of freedom of emigration."

The Bush administration has repeatedly urged Congress to repeal the Jackson-Vanik provision in regard to Russia.

However, it has been stymied on that front largely because of congressional unhappiness with Russian import barriers that block U.S. poultry and other meat products. Also, many lawmakers have not wanted to vote on permanent normal trade relations with Russia until Moscow has finished its negotiations to join the World Trade Organization.

In practice, the White House no longer makes an annual decision on whether to maintain normal trade relations with Russia, as it did for many years with China. But it is still required by Jackson-Vanik to report semi-annually to Congress on Russian emigration practices.

Repealing the provision would eliminate that "irritant" from U.S.-Russian relations and allow the two countries to establish permanent normal trade relations, Lugar said.

Congress has already taken that step for a number of East European countries and former Soviet republics since 1991. That list includes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Kyrgyzstan, Albania and Georgia.

Maintaining the provision on Russia creates the impression "we think the Cold War is still going on," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick recently told lawmakers.

Democrats in the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives plan to introduce their own bill to graduate Russia from Jackson-Vanik and establish permanent normal trade relations.

return to "Russia PNTR"