WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives is set to remove a Cold War obstacle to trade with Russia that has stymied American exporters seeking to take advantage of Russia's newly liberalized trade practices.
Russia’s entry into the World Trade
Organization on Aug. 22 requires it to lower tariffs and take other
market-opening measures. But unless Congress acts to eliminate a 1974
measure linking trade to the emigration of Soviet Jews and other
minorities, U.S. businesses will be shut off from the benefits available
to the WTO’s other 155 members.
Establishing permanent normal
trade relations with Russia has been a top trade priority for both the
business community and the administration this year, but the House
Republican leadership, sensitive to the overall poor relations between
Washington and Moscow, held off on bringing up the bill before the
election.
Senate Democratic leaders have said they would consider the trade bill promptly after the House acts.
To
assuage lawmakers from both parties critical of Russia’s human rights
record, the trade bill has been combined with legislation that would
impose sanctions on Russian officials involved in human rights
violations.
Still, there has been resistance to acting on the
trade bill at a time when Russia is seen as aiding the Syrian government
of President Bashar Assad and has taken a hostile stance toward the
United States on such issues as missile defense.
Republican David
Dreier, the chairman of the Rules Committee and a leading advocate of
trade bills, said the trade measure would be a win both for American
jobs and “for the people of Russia who deserve better than they’ve
gotten.” It’s a good thing, he said, “because (Russian President)
Vladimir Putin is not a good guy.”
The trade bill, unlike
bilateral free trade treaties, requires no concessions from the U.S.
side. With passage, U.S. companies and farmers would see lower tariffs,
better protections for intellectual property and greater access to
Russia’s service market and would be able to go to the WTO to resolve
disputes.
The administration and economists have predicted that
U.S. exports of goods and services, currently at $11 billion, could
double in five years if trade relations were normalized. If Congress
fails to act, business groups say, Americans will fall even further
behind Europe and China in tapping a growing market of 140 million
consumers.
The bill, the White House said in a statement
supporting its passage, “is about providing opportunities for American
businesses and workers and creating jobs here at home.”
The legislation would also extend permanent normal trade relations to Moldova, another former Soviet state.
At
issue is the Jackson-Vanik amendment to a 1974 trade bill that
conditioned trade with the Soviet Union to greater freedom for Soviet
minorities seeking to leave the country. Since the 1990s, presidents
have annually waived the now-obsolete Jackson-Vanik requirement, but it
still must be eliminated as part of a permanent trade relations accord.
The
accompanying human rights bill is named after Russian lawyer and
whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian jail in 2009
after allegedly being subject to torture. The House bill would impose
sanctions such as visa restrictions and the freezing of assets of
Russian officials involved in human rights violations. The Magnitsky
bill pending in the Senate goes further to extend penalties to human
rights violators around the world.
Democratic congressman Jim
McGovern, said he would not be supporting the trade bill without the
addition of the human rights provision, which he called “probably the
most significant piece of human rights legislation attached to any trade
bill” in his 16 years in Congress.
“We can vote for this
legislation, if I might say so, with good conscience,” said Sander Levin
of Michigan, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.
Russian
officials have voiced strong opposition to the Magnitsky measure. The
Obama administration has said that, while it does not object to the
Magnitsky bill, it would have preferred that the trade legislation be
taken up on its own. The White House policy statement on the bill refers
generally to the need to promote respect for human rights around the
world and says the administration will continue to work with Congress to
support those seeking a free and democratic future in Russia.
