Jackson-Vanik Amendment prepared a decent abolition
The United States will monitor Russia's compliance with WTO rules
A bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment pending adoption by the US Congress will be further tightened. In addition to linking with the "Magnitsky law", which introduces sanctions against Russian officials, it will include additional measures to control how Russia complies with WTO rules. American trade unions have demanded toughening, fearing that with the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, the United States will lose its levers of pressure on the Russian Federation. The White House goes for it to ensure the passage of the law through Congress. A Kommersant source in the Russian government warned: "There has not been such a negative accumulation of legislative initiatives in the United States for a long time."
Today, the budget committee of the House of Representatives of Congress will consider an amended bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment - it contains a number of new requirements related to Russia. On Tuesday, after a series of consultations with trade union leaders, these changes were officially proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown and members of Congress Michael Michaud and Rosa Delauro.
The changes oblige the US trade representative in Moscow to provide the Congress with a detailed report on the fulfillment by Russia of WTO requirements already 90 days after the law on establishing normal trade relations with the United States came into force. The report should contain information about all violations of WTO rules and regulations. In case of conflicts with the authorities of the Russian Federation, American companies will be able to appeal to Congress, and the relevant committees of both chambers will have the right to request the US trade representative to immediately take the necessary measures - no more than 15 days are given for consideration of appeals. “These very simple and effective amendments will allow us to react to any unscrupulous attempts by Russia to use the regime of normal trade relations,” said Congressman Michael Michaud.
Thus, this bill further tightens the requirements contained in the document, unanimously adopted by the Senate Finance Committee last week (see “Kommersant” on July 19). Amendments made at the insistence of senators suggest that simultaneously with the granting of the status of “normal trading partner” to the Russian Federation, the “Magnitsky law” will come into force. In addition, the Senate amendments obliged the US trade mission in Moscow to observe how Russia complies with WTO rules, and six months after the Russian accession, submit a special report to the Congress on the situation with corruption in the Russian Federation. The administration was instructed to open a hotline and a special Internet site that US companies operating in Russia could use to report all cases of corruption and breach of trade obligations.
However, the proposed measures American trade unions considered inadequate. In a letter sent to Congress at the beginning of the week, trade union leaders warned: after the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, the United States would have no leverage over Moscow. They called on lawmakers not to repeat the mistake of a decade ago, when China’s accession to the WTO was approved without additional conditions. "All these years we have been forced to watch impatiently as China continuously makes and immediately breaks its promises," the letter said in a letter signed by the leaders of influential trade unions in the steel and communications industry. "Farmers, workers and entrepreneurs in the United States should at least know that the government will be able to protect them if any conditions of contracts and contracts are violated," the union leaders called.
The result of this call was the tightening of the bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment. If today the amended document is approved by the budget committee of the lower house, it can be put to a vote by the whole Congress.
The administration of Barack Obama did not object to the tightening. As explained by the US trade representative Ron Kirk, the White House is doing everything so that the amendments are adopted as soon as possible. “Our goal is to have the document on the president’s table even before the beginning of August,” the trade representative announced.
Moscow initially warned that replacing the Jackson-Vanik amendment with the "Magnitsky law" is unacceptable for it and that this "cannot but poison Russian-American relations." And recently, a Kommersant source in the government of the Russian Federation expressed fears that the United States would accompany the abolition of the odious amendment not only by “Magnitsky law.” Last week, the House of Representatives of the Congress banned the Pentagon to cooperate with the Russian state company Rosoboronexport (see Kommersant on July 21). And now Congress is tightening the bill itself to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment. “There has not been such a negative accumulation of legislative initiatives and ideas in the United States for a long time,” the source concluded in the government.
A bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment pending adoption by the US Congress will be further tightened. In addition to linking with the "Magnitsky law", which introduces sanctions against Russian officials, it will include additional measures to control how Russia complies with WTO rules. American trade unions have demanded toughening, fearing that with the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, the United States will lose its levers of pressure on the Russian Federation. The White House goes for it to ensure the passage of the law through Congress. A Kommersant source in the Russian government warned: "There has not been such a negative accumulation of legislative initiatives in the United States for a long time."
Today, the budget committee of the House of Representatives of Congress will consider an amended bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment - it contains a number of new requirements related to Russia. On Tuesday, after a series of consultations with trade union leaders, these changes were officially proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown and members of Congress Michael Michaud and Rosa Delauro.
The changes oblige the US trade representative in Moscow to provide the Congress with a detailed report on the fulfillment by Russia of WTO requirements already 90 days after the law on establishing normal trade relations with the United States came into force. The report should contain information about all violations of WTO rules and regulations. In case of conflicts with the authorities of the Russian Federation, American companies will be able to appeal to Congress, and the relevant committees of both chambers will have the right to request the US trade representative to immediately take the necessary measures - no more than 15 days are given for consideration of appeals. “These very simple and effective amendments will allow us to react to any unscrupulous attempts by Russia to use the regime of normal trade relations,” said Congressman Michael Michaud.
Thus, this bill further tightens the requirements contained in the document, unanimously adopted by the Senate Finance Committee last week (see “Kommersant” on July 19). Amendments made at the insistence of senators suggest that simultaneously with the granting of the status of “normal trading partner” to the Russian Federation, the “Magnitsky law” will come into force. In addition, the Senate amendments obliged the US trade mission in Moscow to observe how Russia complies with WTO rules, and six months after the Russian accession, submit a special report to the Congress on the situation with corruption in the Russian Federation. The administration was instructed to open a hotline and a special Internet site that US companies operating in Russia could use to report all cases of corruption and breach of trade obligations.
However, the proposed measures American trade unions considered inadequate. In a letter sent to Congress at the beginning of the week, trade union leaders warned: after the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, the United States would have no leverage over Moscow. They called on lawmakers not to repeat the mistake of a decade ago, when China’s accession to the WTO was approved without additional conditions. "All these years we have been forced to watch impatiently as China continuously makes and immediately breaks its promises," the letter said in a letter signed by the leaders of influential trade unions in the steel and communications industry. "Farmers, workers and entrepreneurs in the United States should at least know that the government will be able to protect them if any conditions of contracts and contracts are violated," the union leaders called.
The result of this call was the tightening of the bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment. If today the amended document is approved by the budget committee of the lower house, it can be put to a vote by the whole Congress.
The administration of Barack Obama did not object to the tightening. As explained by the US trade representative Ron Kirk, the White House is doing everything so that the amendments are adopted as soon as possible. “Our goal is to have the document on the president’s table even before the beginning of August,” the trade representative announced.
Moscow initially warned that replacing the Jackson-Vanik amendment with the "Magnitsky law" is unacceptable for it and that this "cannot but poison Russian-American relations." And recently, a Kommersant source in the government of the Russian Federation expressed fears that the United States would accompany the abolition of the odious amendment not only by “Magnitsky law.” Last week, the House of Representatives of the Congress banned the Pentagon to cooperate with the Russian state company Rosoboronexport (see Kommersant on July 21). And now Congress is tightening the bill itself to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment. “There has not been such a negative accumulation of legislative initiatives and ideas in the United States for a long time,” the source concluded in the government.
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