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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Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak: On normal trade relations and the deficit of normalcy
Russia is about to formally enter the World Trade Organization. The State Duma and the Federation Council have both approved ratification documents, which were signed by the president of the Russian Federation on July 21, 2012. In August our country will become a full-fledged member of the WTO.
It took Russia 18 long years of intensive negotiations to settle all issues with the members of this global trade bloc. Accession to the organization is important for Russia as the largest economy outside the framework of the WTO. It is also potentially important for bilateral trade and economic cooperation with the United States.
To fully enjoy the benefits of Russia’s accession to the WTO, the United States will have to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment — a Cold War relic that used to bind bilateral trade to emigration restrictions in the former USSR. Failure to remove this obstacle will pose a problem for both Russian and American businesses. And, most probably, American companies will suffer more than ours.
But should we really have to measure who will suffer the most damage? Wouldn’t it be better to seek truly normal relations? While our countries are slowly moving in the right direction with regard to trade, political relations are still fragile and vulnerable to what I would call an extension of Cold War-era thinking.
The U.S. Congress is in the process of considering Permanent Normal Trade Relations, or PNTR, with Russia. This is something that should be welcomed, especially after so many years of absence of normalcy in our bilateral trade. In the meantime, the draft laws to achieve normalcy are bundled on Capitol Hill with legislation that has nothing to do with trade and would in fact deny normalcy in the relations between our countries. The so-called Magnitsky bill seems to be part of that bundle.
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US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations mark-up of “Magnitsky Act”
Here is some summary footage of the discussions that took place inside the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations where Senator John Kerry and Senator Ben Cardin discussed the application of a US visa ban on those Russian officials implicated in the Magnitsky case.
There is also some footage of the speech made by Senator John McCain at the film screening of the documentary entitles “The Magnitsky Files”, which was given its global debut on the 26 June 2012 in Washington DC.
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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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As Assad Regime Totters, The Kremlin And Beijing Shudder
The forces of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad shell rebel-occupied neighborhoods of Damascus. Four young female members of a punk rock band begin their fifth month in a Moscow jail. Somewhere in China a local party boss meets with disaffected factory workers. In Washington, the full house prepares to vote on the Sergei Magnitsky Act, which calls for visa restrictions for Russian officials for human rights abuses. These disparate events are part of a larger mosaic, which begins in Syria.
Bashar al-Assad, like his father before him, symbolizes unconstrained dictators prepared to do anything, no matter how odious, to stay in power. Unconstrained dictators use their secret police, militias, and armies to arrest, torture, and kill opponents. They raze whole towns. They kill innocent women and children to send a message. They are indifferent to world outrage. If Assad falls, it will not be for lack of brutality and atrocity. He may resort to chemical weapons as a last resort.
Constrained dictators, such as Mubarak, Pinochet, and the Shah, face limits imposed by moral qualms or the international community. Small protests swell, and momentum for regime change builds. Failure to use overwhelming force and efforts to compromise only embolden protesters, and eventually the constrained dictator resigns either to flee the country or to face local justice.
Two other constrained dictatorships, Russia and China, want to keep Assad in power. Both shudder at a fellow totalitarian regime falling to a disorganized opposition. They will abandon him (with great fanfare) only when it is clear that he has lost. China and Russia have their own disaffected minorities, disgruntled workers, and ideological opponents. Their one-party states lack legitimacy, and they know it. They consider themselves under constant threat, fearing the single spark that brings millions to the streets. They must snuff out any spark — a lone barefoot lawyer or an 18 year old girl throwing a rock at security forces – that could conceivably ignite a Tahrir Square.
Russia and China’s one-party dictatorships face different threats. China’s Communist Party (CPC) must firefight grievance demonstrations. Putin, on the other hand, must confront direct challenges to his legitimacy.
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The empty Kremlin
Vladimir Putin’s regime has run out of ideas, but not of nasty tactics.
Every country has laws that constrain political freedom. Anti-capitalist protesters get moved on in London and New York. The Canadian province of Quebec, beset by student unrest, has passed a law that imposes daily fines of up to $35,000 on the organisers. Lawmakers try to stop online piracy and jihadist propaganda. Defamation, at least in theory, is a criminal offence in many democracies. American law says the activity of foreign agents must be registered and disclosed.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is taking what looks, superficially, a similar approach. Four new laws are passed or pending (see article). One introduces big fines for participants and organisers of illegal protests. Another creates a blacklist—as yet unpublished—of “harmful” websites. A third recriminalises defamation. A fourth makes non-profit groups declare any funding from abroad and, if they accept it, label themselves as “foreign agents”. That chimes with Mr Putin’s anti-Western rhetoric, portraying Russia as a besieged fortress, and his opponents as the puppets of its foreign enemies.
Even if Russia had the rule of law and a vigorous free press, these laws would be cause for concern—because they are loosely worded and have been rushed through with much official venom. What makes them worse is the way Russia’s state agencies and public institutions work. They chiefly serve their own interests, acting with impunity and taking political orders from the top. That stokes corruption. It also explains the feebleness of the investigations into the many abuses that have marked Mr Putin’s time in power, such as the death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing lawyer (see article). Russians have every reason to fear that the new laws will be interpreted selectively and vindictively.
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A Hedge Fund Manager’s Crusade against Putin
Financial investor Bill Browder was once a fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But after his lawyer died in prison under suspicious circumstances, he launched a crusade against the Kremlin. The case has gained the attention of the OSCE and the US Senate.
The text message Bill Browder, a London-based hedge fund manager, received on his phone was lifted directly from a mafia thriller. “If history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone,” Michael Corleone says in “The Godfather: Part II.” Browder doesn’t know who sent him the quote.
It wasn’t, however, the only one. The 48-year-old has several such text messages, which he believes to be from Russian intelligence agents. He explains all this in a matter-of-fact, business-like tone, as if this were all still just a question of money and business rather than life and death.
Two and a half years ago, Browder’s tax attorney, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten in Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. Shortly afterward, Magnitsky was dead. “Sergei was tortured to death,” Browder believes.
The case has turned a spotlight on the Russian government’s harassment of businesses and foreign investors within its borders. The Kremlin’s legal system has thrown over 100,000 businesspeople in jail, with oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky being the most prominent one among them.
But Browder isn’t the type to be easily intimidated. His story reads like a modern-day Damascene conversion, becoming a human rights crusader in addition to a hedge fund manager. It’s also a story of battling Russia’s strongman, Vladimir Putin, who was reinstalled as his country’s president this May and wants to consolidate Russia as an international economic power.
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US Senator Wicker speaks on Senate Floor about Magnitsky Act
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) spoke on the floor of the US Senate in support of the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act” whichy is making its way through both House of of Congress. Senator Wicker also requested that the speech made by Senator John McCain in Monaco at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembley Annual Conference in July, should be entered into the Congressional record, and fully supported the passage of a Magnitsky resolution at the OSCE PA.
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Why Does the Kremlin Defend the Suspects in the Magnitsky Case?
Many countries have mafias. I’ve reported on gangsters in Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. I’ve spent time mulling the human landscapes in Sicily and in the United States.
In those countries, if credible, outside investigators produce an exhaustive report alleging the theft of nearly $1 billion in government money and the murders of five people, the governments would respond in two ways.
One: Say, “Thank you very much” and find an honest prosecutor and give the political and financial backing to take the cases to trial.
Two: Say, “Thank you very much” and then quietly do nothing.
Russia is taking a radically new strategy.
Here’s what’s going on:
Over the course of the last two years, investigators with Hermitage Capital have compiled highly detailed reports on the alleged theft of $800 million in Russian tax money and the cover-up murders of five people, including Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The most recent report drills down to the detail of showing receipts for vacations that alleged gang leaders and Russian government accomplices took together in Cyprus and Dubai.
Hermitage recently released a powerful 17-minute video that is now moving minds across the world. Posted on YouTube, it’s called: “The Magnitsky Files: Organized Crime Inside the Russian Government.”
At last count, about 20 parliaments, starting with the United States Congress and the British Parliament, are drawing up legislation to ban visas and freeze assets of suspects in the Magnitsky case.
Facing this international PR disaster, what is Russia doing?
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
