Soviet-era rule splits GOP
The Hill (Washington, DC)
January 12, 2005
By Peter Savodnik (psavodnik@thehill.com, 202-628-8507)
Leading Republicans on Capitol Hill are at odds on whether Congress
should repeal a Cold War trade measure that barred the Soviet Union
from gaining most favored nation (MFN) status – and, critics say,
continues to stymie economic growth and strain relations between
Washington and Moscow.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment to the 1974 trade act targeted the Soviets
for sharply limiting Jewish emigration. Given that all countries
belonging to the World Trade Organization (WTO) must grant each other
MFN status, the trade measure also has made it difficult for Russia,
Ukraine and other ex-communist states to join the WTO.
Foreign-policy mavens such as Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.),
chairman of the International Relations Committee, argue that
Jackson-Vanik has outlived its usefulness.
In their eyes, and those of the U.S.-Russia Business Council and
authorities in Russia and Ukraine, Jackson-Vanik is a snub to
ex-communist states that, most everyone agrees, have greatly improved
their human-rights records since the Soviet Union’s collapse in
1991. The United States has acknowledged as much, routinely giving the
formerly communist countries yearly waivers for Jackson-Vanik.
But some senators and House members are reluctant to move quickly on
Jackson-Vanik for fear of forfeiting a bargaining chip. That is
particularly true at the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means
committees, which have jurisdiction on Jackson-Vanik.
The `trade linkage’ camp, as one Republican source put it, views
Jackson-Vanik as a useful tool when it comes to ensuring that
U.S. corporations are treated favorably in Russia or for protecting
the rights of religious minorities.
`There’s definitely a split [on Capitol Hill], and I don’t think it’s
ideologically Republican or Democrat,’ a Senate aide
explained. `There’s a split between the people who view Jackson-Vanik
as an insulting relic of the Soviet era. … But on the other hand
there are folks who believe that if you don’t have that Jackson-Vanik
vote every year to get that MFN status you really are giving something
up. You give away some leverage.’
Officials from the affected countries – including the new, pro-Western
president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushenko – want the measure to be
expunged, or, at least, they want their countries to be `graduated’
from the restrictions, as has been the case for the ex-Soviet
republics of Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and the Baltic states:
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
One Republican source said that when Yushenko meets with President
Bush, which could happen next month in Europe, three issues will
likely top Yushenko’s list: gaining entry to the WTO, securing
market-economy status from the Commerce Department and eliminating
Jackson-Vanik.
`The age of Jackson-Vanik has long since ended, and the Jackson-Vanik
restrictions should be lifted on what was the Soviet Union,’ said
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who led a six-member delegation to
Kiev last month to oversee the presidential election in
Ukraine. `Nobody claims that we live in the Soviet era, where Jews are
no longer permitted to immigrate. … The fact that we haven’t taken
[Jackson-Vanik] off – it either reflects incompetence or malice.’
Rohrabacher, a member of the International Relations Committee, said
he would seek to force a debate in the 109th Congress on repealing
Jackson-Vanik. Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Lugar, said the senator
would back a bill similar to the one he sponsored in the last Congress
calling for Russia’s graduation; that bill was co-sponsored by GOP
Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and
Trent Lott (Miss.).
A Republican House aide said Hyde is `strongly in favor’ of repealing
Jackson-Vanik for Russia and Ukraine. And a Senate aide suggested that
Ukraine’s recent democratic `orange revolution’ had led to a
reassessment of U.S.-Ukrainian relations. `I expect that there will be
a hard look at the various ways the U.S. can help Ukraine consolidate
its democratic gains, and this will probably include looking at the
repeal of [Jackson-Vanik],’ the aide said.
Sen. Joe Biden’s (D-Del.) experience with Russian chicken bans
illustrates the benefits, some say, of holding onto Jackson-Vanik. The
ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, who had supported
repealing the trade measure for Russia, changed his mind after Russia
imposed a ban in 2002 on U.S. chicken imports. Chicken is big
business in Delaware. Soon after Biden and other senators complained,
Russia lifted the ban.
Mark Levin, executive director of the NCSJ (formerly known as the
National Conference of Soviet Jewry), an advocacy group for Jews in
the former Soviet Union, added that Ukraine has yet to return communal
property such as synagogues and schools to Jewish communities in Kiev,
Lviv, Dniprepetrovsk and other cities.
Referring to Ukraine’s speaker of the parliament, or Rada, Vladimir
Lytvyn, Levin said: `Lytvyn made a commitment to an NCSJ [delegation]
that he would introduce legislation on returning communal property,
and nothing has happened.’
Sergei Korsunsky, deputy chief of mission at the Ukrainian Embassy in
Washington, countered that a `Jewish renaissance’ is taking place
today in his country, encompassing 230 communities with 500 Jewish
organizations and 40 Jewish newspapers. He added that 50 synagogues
have been returned to Jews in Ukraine.
`Of course,’ Korsunsky said, `we have sometimes, somewhere, separate
cases of anti-Semitism, but this does not compare to what is going on
in Europe.’