Posts Tagged ‘baucus’
The Russia Trade Pile-Up
So how can legislation supported by business groups, democracy activists, Senate Democrats, House Republicans and the Obama Administration be in danger of failing? Answer: Only in Washington.
That’s where things stand with a bill to normalize trade with Russia that includes a provision to sanction gross abusers of human rights. Early last week all looked good. Montana Democrat Max Baucus and Arizona Republican Jon Kyl crafted a compromise in the Senate Finance Committee that’s ready for a floor vote. Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp and ranking Democrat Sander Levin knocked together a House version in a few hours.
Then on Monday every House Member received a letter from the United Steelworkers and the Communication Workers of America. The unions called the bill “woefully deficient” in enforcing Russian compliance with World Trade Organization rules. This is false, since Russia will join the WTO on August 22 no matter what, and failure to adopt “permanent normal trade relations” would only hurt U.S. companies in Russia. Yet Democratic support notably softened.
Meanwhile, the Administration has been missing in action. President Obama hasn’t pressed Members, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton isn’t lobbying the Hill. We’re told that when he met with House Democrats on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stressed taxes but not this ostensibly high trade priority.
White House enthusiasm has ebbed since the Senate overrode its objections and added the Magnitsky Act, which bans Russian rights abusers from visiting or banking in the U.S. Mr. Obama also may not want to push a bill disliked by unions and that some criticize unfairly as rewarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bad behavior. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn’t committed to a floor vote before the August recess.
If Democratic leaders won’t lead, then some Republicans ask why they should. After the Ways and Means voice vote, Speaker John Boehner scotched quick House floor action. “If the president really thinks this is an important issue that we have to deal with, then maybe he ought to be out there making the case for it,” he said. “I haven’t seen that as yet.”
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Russia set to join World Trade Organization on Aug. 22
The countdown is on for Congress to normalize trade relations with Russia.
Moscow officially told the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday said it has ratified the accession package and is set to become the 156th member of the trade group on Aug. 22.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the “action marks a significant point in the evolution of the WTO and the global trading system.”
“Congress should continue to work on legislation regarding Jackson-Vanik and permanent normal trade relations for Russia so American businesses, workers and creators have access to the same benefits from Russia’s membership that their foreign competitors have.”
The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to hold a markup this week on a measure to repeal the Jackson-Vanik provision, an obsolete Cold War-era amendment that needs to be removed to normalize trade relations with Russia.
The House measure mirrors the language approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee, minus the human-right legislation that Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) wrapped into the bill.
The so-called Magnitsky bill is expected to be tacked onto the House version in the Rules Committee before the bill heads to the floor.
Then the bill, which must pass the House first, would head to the Senate for clearance for President Obama’s signature.
Melding the trade and human rights bills has been opposed by the Obama administration and House Republicans but there was growing support on both sides of the Capitol to including the bill that would apply visa and financial sanctions on Russian officials involved in the death of whistleblower lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
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Optimism grows Russia trade bill will pass before August recess
Optimism is rising among lawmakers and trade advocates that Congress can pass a Russian trade bill before the August recess.
The bill to normalize trade relations with Moscow, which appeared hopelessly stalled before a Senate Finance Committee markup, found new life after winning unanimous support among panel members following an agreement crafted by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and top Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah.
While actions last week — moving the joint trade and human rights bill through Senate Finance and locking in a bipartisan deal in the House — provide greater hope that Congress can get a bill to President Obama’s desk before Russia joins the World Trade Organization next month, lawmakers are running short on time.
“I remain confident this will get done by the August recess,” Christopher Wenk, head of international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told The Hill on Friday.
“The Chamber won’t let Congress leave town without getting it done.”
The broad support in the Senate Finance Committee for a bill that combines the repeal of the 37-year-old Jackson-Vanik provision to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with a measure that punishes Russian officials involved in the death of whistleblower lawyer Sergei Magnitsky seemed to simultaneously surprise trade watchers and pave the way for a final resolution.
Although the chances for the bill to clear Congress are looking up, and the measure represents a bright spot amid the legislative logjam in Congress, there are no guarantees, supporters caution.
“Based on what I’ve been hearing, I wouldn’t say that they’re [lawmakers] confident about getting it done before the August recess,” said Ed Gerwin, a senior fellow for trade and global economic policy at Third Way.
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Senate Finance Reports Measure on PNTR For Russia, Moldova; Magnitsky Act Included
Key Development: Magnitsky bill included, vote is unanimous.
Next Steps: Kirk, Baucus, Camp to meet July 19.
The Senate Finance Committee July 18 unanimously reported legislation designed to allow the president to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia and Moldova.
The bill would also replace human rights sections of the Trade Act of 1974 with provisions, named after deceased tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky, targeting corrupt government officials in Russia and elsewhere.
In his opening remarks, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) noted that the measure will make permanent the normal trade relations the United States already has had with Russia for the past 20 years and should double U.S. exports to Russia in five years.
The opportunities for increased trade with Russia are related to the massive Eurasian country joining the World Trade Organization in August after a 19-year accession process. The upper house of the country’s legislature July 18 approved the WTO accession package (see related report).
Baucus said hundreds of companies and trade associations have come out in favor of PNTR, as well as U.S. and Russian Jewish groups, including the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Section 402 of the Trade Act, the so-called Jackson-Vanik Amendment, requires an annual review of respect for emigration rights that was originally intended to support Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union. The bill would terminate the application of this section along with the others in Title IV.
The annual review constitutes a condition according to WTO rules and is therefore at odds with the organization’s core principle of unconditional most favored nation (MFN) status, which is the term for PNTR used in international treaties. Absent MFN, Russia is not required to grant the terms of its accession package to the United States and U.S. companies.
Baucus noted that Moldova is the only WTO member with which the United States does not have permanent normal trade relations. “Like Russia,” Baucus said, “Moldova has allowed freedom of emigration for many years, and Moldova joined the WTO in 2001.”
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Senate panel approves normal trade relations with Russia, adds human rights provision
A Russia trade bill that could double U.S. exports to Russia but complicate already frosty relations with the former Communist superpower advanced in the Senate on Wednesday.
Lawmakers rejected a provision that would have required the president to certify that Russia is no longer supplying arms to Syria.
The Senate Finance Committee combined the trade measure with a bill to punish Russian human rights violators.
The committee’s unanimous vote to lift Cold War trade restrictions and establish permanent normal trade relations with Russia came against a background of strong objections to Russia’s poor human rights record, its threats against U.S. missile defenses in Europe, its failure to protect intellectual property rights, its discrimination against U.S. agricultural products and most recently its support for the Assad government in Syria.
Enacting permanent trade status is necessary if U.S. businesses are to benefit from the lowering of trade barriers that will take place when Russia enters the World Trade Organization next month.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said current U.S. exports to Russia, about $9 billion a year, could double in five years if trade relations are normalized.
“There is no time to waste. America risks being left behind,” Baucus said. “If we miss that deadline, American farmers, ranchers, workers and businesses will lose out to the other 154 members of the WTO that already have PNTR (permanent normal trade relations) with Russia.” U.S. imports from Russia last year were four times the export level.
Getting the trade bill through Congress has been a top priority for business and farm groups, which see it as a jobs creator and a boost to the economy. “Without PNTR, U.S. companies and workers will be at a distinct disadvantage in the Russian market as our competitors in Europe, Asia and elsewhere begin to lock in sales and long-term contracts,” said Caterpillar Inc. chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman, who also chairs the Business Roundtable’s International Engagement Committee.
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Senate Panel Advances Trade Bill With Russia
A Senate committee advanced a measure on Wednesday to normalize trade relations with Russia for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union while also sanctioning officials implicated in human rights abuses.
With the measure passed in the Senate Finance Committee on a unanimous vote, lawmakers dispensed with two decades of resistance to lifting cold war-era restrictions under the so-called Jackson-Vanik law. But senators insisted on the human rights sanctions to send a message to President Vladimir V. Putin as Moscow under his new term cracks down on dissent.
The trade move has been a priority of President Obama’s as he seeks to improve Russian-American relations, but his administration unsuccessfully lobbied against adding the sanctions, arguing that it was already taking action on human rights. The sanctions have provoked deep anger in Moscow at a time when Mr. Obama has been seeking help from Mr. Putin in resolving the crisis in Syria.
Russian lawmakers visited Washington last week to lobby against the sanctions, and on Tuesday, Moscow repeated its plan to respond tit for tat.
“There is a whole range of situations in the U.S. where senior and other officials of this country’s ministries and agencies are responsible for systematic and severe human rights violations,” Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, told the Interfax news agency.
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Russia trade and human rights legislation advances, but time running short
The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved today a bill to grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status as well as a bill to punish Russian human rights violators, but time is running out to pass the legislation through the full House and Senate.
Committee Chairman Max Baucus (R-MT) called on Congress to quickly pass the bills before lawmakers leave town at the end of this month for the long August recess. Russia’s accession to the WTO is imminent, and unless the United States grants Russia PNTR status, U.S. businesses won’t be able to take advantage, he argued.
“There is no time to waste; America risks being left behind,” Baucus said. “If we miss that deadline [of Russia’s WTO accession], American farmers, ranchers, workers and businesses will lose out to the other 154 members of the WTO that already have PNTR with Russia. American workers will lose the jobs created to China, Canada and Europe when Russia, the world’s seventh largest economy, joins the WTO and opens its market to the world.”
Baucus also trumpeted the fact that the PNTR bill is now officially joined with the Senate version of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Act of 2012, which passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously in June. The bill imposes restrictions on the financial activities and travel of foreign officials found to have been connected to various human rights violations in any country. The House version of the bill, approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month, targets only Russian human rights violators.
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US Senate Committee Ties Jackson-Vanik to Magnitsky Bill
The United States Congress finance committee has linked a draft bill on repealing the Jackson-Vanik Amendment and a change in Russia’s status to a free trade nation to the draft “Magnitsky bill,” the committee said on Wednesday.
A Senate vote on the joint law will take place in the next few hours.
“Committee Chairman Baucus released a modified mark of his bill to establish permanent normal trade relations with Russia and remove Russia from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment,” a source in Washington told RIA Novosti. “The mark includes the Magnitsky Act, as passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
The text of the joint bill also has “small alterations,” on electronic trade, the source added.
The introduction of the combined bill to the committee is a technicality, as Baucus presented his draft bill to the Senate on July 12, and on July 14 a source in the committee administration confirmed to RIA Novosti that it would be this joint bill which would be put to the vote on Wednesday.
Several senators have already expressed strong support for the bill.
The new bill is a response to the demands of a majority of lawmakers for a review of legislation affecting trade and human rights issues, including some laws affecting trade with Russia.
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Russia offers economic opportunity
U.S. exports to Russia total more than $9 billion per year. Repealing Jackson-Vanik and establishing PNTR could double that number in just five years, according to one recent study. That could mean thousands of new jobs across every sector of our economy. With the Russian economy’s impressive growth — it’s expected to outgrow Germany’s by 2029 — the long-run gains would be even greater.
Make no mistake, Russia is not without its problems — and they are stark in the foreign policy arena. Its support for the regimes in Syria and Iran remains an obstacle.
The death of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky also highlights troubling human rights problems. A bill known as the Magnitsky Act, sponsored by our colleagues Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and McCain , aims to address these human rights issues by sanctioning those responsible for Magnitsky’s death. It’s a crucial part of the debate surrounding our relationship with Russia — and should be approved together with PNTR.
It is important to understand that this debate is not a choice between improving conditions in Russia and increasing U.S. exports. These are not opposing goals — indeed, they support each other.
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