Will Russia Graduate From The Jackson-Vanik Amendment? By Krickus

The Lithuania Tribune

The Obama administration wants to scrap the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a Cold War relic that could compromise American economic interests after Russia enters the World Trade Organization (WTO). U.S. firms could be denied access to the Russian market and those operating in it would not be protected by WTO rules. But there are members of Congress in both parties who oppose granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status to Moscow without a trade-off; namely in return for scrapping the amendment, the Obama administration will endorse passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act—named after the human rights lawyer who died under government custody. It is designed to punish Russian officials who engage in human rights violations, illegally seize property, and falsify elections. Among other things, they will be subjected to visa and financial sanctions.

Some supporters of this trade-off are doing so out of principle. They believe that it will offer the Russian people protections against human rights violations. This is not the view of the Obama administration. Michael McFaul, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia opposes linking wider commercial relations between Moscow and Washington to human rights. He argues that it will not advance Russia’s march towards democracy. Instead he urges congress to provide $50 million dollars to Russian NGO’s to enhance their capacity to build a civil society and notes as well that visa bans have already been issued against some Russian officials.

To complicate matters, democratic activists like Alexi Navalny, the blogger who helped energize recent public protest demonstrations, and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, who heads Moscow’s Human Rights Group, favors Jackson-Vanik’s repeal. They made this known–along with a number of their colleagues–in a letter to the U.S. Congress. Since then, they have supplemented their request by supporting the Magnitsky Act as well.

Of course, there are others in Washington who oppose Jackson-Vanik’s repeal for partisan political reasons that have nothing to do with the substance of the matter. Their position on the amendment– and opposition to the reset in American-Russian relations–is a calculated campaign to portray Obama’s foreign policy record as flawed and his stewardship of U.S. national security policy weak. They have done so because any objective assessment of his record on this score compares favorably with his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. (This behavior is in keeping with the practice of Republican hardliners during the Cold War when attacks on “Soviet communism” were closely aligned with assaults on the New Deal. In short, diminish the appeal of the liberals at home by associating them with the Reds abroad.) To be sure, Obama’s foreign policy performance is deserving of criticism but it should be driven by serious discourse not partisan sound bites.

Meanwhile, many Russians resent being lectured about human rights. America is the world’s richest country yet millions of its citizens are denied the most basic human right—universal health care. About 50 million Americans do not have any health care insurance and this accounts for some appalling statistics: to wit life expectancy in the U.S. ranks 29th just behind Slovenia and infant mortality ranks 30th twice that of Sweden. Furthermore, the Republican Party has introduced a budget that requires a $770 billion reduction in health care for the poor while taxes for the rich will be cut by a figure that far exceeds that amount.

Of course, the Russian government resents the Magnitsky Act and given the turbulence of the American presidential election, repeal of Jackson-Vanik is uncertain. That prospect is not enhanced by reports from Russia that democratic activists and businessmen fighting corruption face arrest for their courageous protests.

Dick Krickus is distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Mary Washington and has held the H.L. Oppenheimer Chair for Warfighting Strategy at the U.S. Marine Corps University. займ онлайн unshaven girl https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php займы на карту срочно