Baucus Urges Swift Passage of Bill to Create U.S. Jobs by Expanding Trade with Russia
US Senate Committee on Finance
In a Senate Finance Committee hearing held today, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called on Congress to pass his legislation by next month enabling U.S. businesses to pursue new job-creating export opportunities in Russia when it joins the World Trade Organization (WTO) this summer. Baucus introduced the bill last week along with International Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member John Thune (R-S.D.), Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.). The bill would establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia and remove Russia from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, steps necessary for American businesses to capitalize on the new market access Russia must provide as a condition of WTO membership.
“Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization this summer will mean thousands of new jobs and give a boost to our economy here in the United States, but only if we pass Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations legislation by August. If we don’t pass PNTR, American workers, businesses, farmers and ranchers will lose out to their competitors in China and Europe,” Baucus said. “Unlike a free trade agreement, we will not lower any of our tariffs or change any of our trade laws – it is a one-sided deal in America’s favor. We can’t ignore the host of difficult issues we face with Russia, but failing to pass PNTR will only harm U.S. exporters and the jobs they create. America needs the jobs PNTR will bring.”
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US Senator Baucus says Russia trade vote needed by August
The chairman of the U.S. Senate’s finance committee said on Thursday it was important that Congress approve legislation by August to boost trade relations with Russia, despite concerns over its record on human rights and support for Syria.
“This is a one-sided deal in America’s favor, but only if we act,” Max Baucus said at the start of a hearing on granting “permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) to America’s former Cold-War foe by lifting a 1974 provision that made favorable U.S. tariff rates on Russian goods dependent on the right of Jews and other religious minorities to emigrate.
“Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization this summer will mean thousands of jobs to the United States, but only if we pass Russian permanent normal trade relations legislation by August,” Baucus said.
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Magnitsky Bill Poised to be Voted into Law
Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed its vote on the landmark Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, in what is hopefully only a minor setback in the astounding campaign to bring justice to the tormenters and murderers of Magnitsky. This came only two weeks after the House Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously approved the bill, clearing the path for the proposed legislation to come to a vote in the House. One suspects that this delay, requested by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), is a consequence of the quiet battle between the White House and Congress over the legislation, which the Obama administration had feared would stymie their much-vaunted “Reset” policy.
Unluckily for Obama—but luckily for dissidents—it doesn’t look like there’s anything that can stop the Magnitsky bill from passing now. The bill has near unanimous support in Congress, and it would be politically impossible for President Obama to veto human rights legislation on this scale.
For readers who are not aware of his case, Sergei Magnitsky was an attorney employed to represent Hermitage Capital, who uncovered an elaborate ruse by government officials whereby Hermitage companies were fraudulently re-registered and used to apply for a tax refund of $230 million. Magnitsky went public with his accusations, and was subsequently pressured into confessing to the theft of the $230 million, and imprisoned without trial in November 2008. During his detention, Magnitsky’s 20 written petitions for medical attention were ignored, and he was left untreated for medical conditions which eventually led to an agonising death—allegedly hastened by torture– on November 16, 2009.
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USTR’s Kirk, Rep. Camp Call For Russia Trade Bill Without Human Rights
Obama administration officials and a key House Republican Wednesday issued a similar message to Congress on the urgency of lifting trade restrictions on Russia, saying the bill should be passed quickly and without including human rights or other provisions.
However, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means committee said the so-called “Magnitsky” bill punishing Russian human-rights violators should be included in any trade legislation, while arguing that the House should hold up on approving the bill until Russia takes steps to help contain the conflict in Syria.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told the House panel that lawmakers should act by Aug. 22 or risk putting U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage when Russia formally joins the World Trade Organization by that date.
“Our priority is for Congress to terminate the Cold-War era Jackson-Vanik amendment as it applies to Russia in a clean bill that enables us to maintain our competitive edge,” Mr. Kirk said in prepared remarks at the hearing. Repealing Jackson-Vanik, a 1974 measure that prevents the U.S. from granting most-favored-nation status to countries that restrict emigration, won’t be a “gift” to Russia, he insisted.
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Opposition Figure Irks Russian Oil Czar
President Vladimir Putin’s close ally who runs Russia’s state oil company Rosneft Wednesday accused a popular leader of opposition protests of acting to the company’s detriment by criticizing Russian officials and demanding access to the company’s secrets.
Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s chief executive, said blogger Alexei Navalny works on behalf of the company’s competitors and an investment fund, who are trying to have a peek into Rosneft’s confidential documents.
Mr. Navalny holds a infinitesimal stake in the firm and, as a shareholder, demands that internal documents, including minutes to board meetings, be published. He has also accused the company of misconduct, corruption and infringement on shareholders’ interests. Rosneft has defended the confidentiality of its documents in courts.
Mr. Navalny, a darling of the anti-Kremlin rallies that have been erupting in Moscow over the past few months, has been repeatedly detained by authorities. His apartment and his office were recently searched by the police, and state-controlled media refer to him as a Western stooge.
“According to some information, Navalny is a lawyer employed by Hermitage Capital,” said Mr. Sechin, the Rosneft chief, when asked at the company’s annual shareholders meeting who he thought was right in the dispute between the company and the blogger.
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Top trade panel Dem splits with Obama, calls for linking Russia trade bill to Syria
The top Democrat on the House trade panel Wednesday split with the White House and called for the United States to hold off on improving trade relations with Russia until the Kremlin joins the world in condemning Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
“Trade is about commerce; it also can be about conscience,” Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) said in prepared remarks at a hearing on the trade issue.
The Obama administration and Ways and Means Committee chairman David Camp (R-Mich) are calling for establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Russia without preconditions. But Levin opened the hearing calling for linking the improvement of trade ties with Moscow to progress on Syria and passage of human rights legislation.
Levin urged Congress to pass a bipartisan, bicameral trade bill “with the clear understanding that after a bill is reported out of committee in the near future, action on the floor will be withheld for a period of time to determine whether Russia will join our nation and others in steps to address the Assad regime’s horrendous violence against its own people.”
Levin added that the trade issue should also be linked to a human rights bill that places financial and travel sanctions on Russian human rights violators. The bill is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing lawyer who died in police custody in 2008.
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U.S. trade bill “not a gift” for Russia, Kirk says
The top U.S. trade official on Wednesday urged Congress to quickly approve legislation to improve trade ties with Russia, unencumbered by human rights requirements, saying it was vital to keep U.S. exports competitive in the Russian market.
“Authorizing the president to provide permanent normal trade relations is not a gift to Russia,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in testimony to the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
Taking that action would ensure that U.S. companies “have the opportunity to enjoy all of the benefits” of Russia’s upcoming entry into the World Trade Organization, which is expected by August 22, Kirk said.
Kirk urged Congress to pass a “clean bill that enables us to maintain our competitive edge,” in reference to the desire of many lawmakers to attach human rights legislation.
Trade relations between the United States and Russia have been governed since 1974 by a human rights provision known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
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Rep. Brady Says Passing PNTR for Russia Is ‘Doable’This Summer, but a Hard Lift
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) June 19 said that passing legislation allowing permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status for Russia was “doable” by this summer although it would be a “hard lift.”
Brady also said he would prefer to see Russia PNTR legislation and a bill addressing Russian human rights concerns move separately.
“There’s no question passing PNTR for Russia is definitely doable, and it is doable this summer,” Brady said in a keynote address at a Peterson Institute for International Economics conference. “But there must be a meeting of the minds on the strategy, just as you do for every trade agreement.”
Brady said that the White House must ramp up its efforts to convince Congress to approve PNTR for Russia before it accedes to the World Trade Organization, adding that administration officials would have an opportunity to make the case at a June 20 hearing of the full Ways and Means Committee.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), International Trade Subcommittee ranking member John Thune (R-S.D.), Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Armed Services Committee ranking member John McCain (R-Ariz.) recently introduced legislation (S. 3285) to terminate the application of Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 to Russia so the president can grant PNTR (113 DER A-30, 6/13/12). At that time, Baucus and Kerry simultaneously unveiled their strategy of advancing human rights legislation along with the trade bill by adding the full text of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act (S. 1039) as an amendment to the bill that would terminate Title IV of the 1974 Trade Act.
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Obama Remains Obstacle to Sanctions
Senate Democrats corralling bipartisan support for commonsense sanctions legislation are experiencing a bit of déjà vu. In late 2011, the Senate agreed to new Iran sanctions by the widest possible margin: 100-0. Yet the Obama administration sought to delay the sanctions, and then worked to water them down. New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez finally went public with his frustration toward President Obama for working so hard to protect Iran from the sanctions everyone had agreed to.
Now Senate Democrats are facing the same obstacle–President Obama–in trying to levy penalties on major human rights violators in Russia. Called the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, named after one prominent victim of those rights violators, the bill was sponsored by Ben Cardin and immediately obtained broad support. But on behalf of the Obama administration, John Kerry kept the bill bogged down in committee. So the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed its own version of the bill, and the White House finally dropped its open opposition to the bill. Now, as Reuters reports, Obama is trying to work changes into the bill that would essentially render it useless:
The measure would require the United States to deny visas and freeze the U.S. assets of Russians linked to Magnitsky’s death. The bill as originally written in both the House and Senate would make public the list of offenders and broaden it to include other abusers of human rights in Russia.
A reworked draft circulating in the Senate and obtained by Reuters would allow the list to “contain a classified annex if the Secretary (of State) determines that it is necessary for the national security interests of the United States to do so.”
[…]
Backers of the Magnitsky bill want the list of human rights violators made public both to shame those on the list and to keep them from doing business with U.S. financial institutions.
[…]
“How can an individual’s assets be frozen, if his or her name cannot be disclosed to financial institutions?” the aide asked.
The answer is: they wouldn’t. The move also comes as the bill received an endorsement from the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, which supported the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik amendment sanctioning Russia for its refusal to allow Jews to emigrate. Jackson-Vanik will be repealed this year in order to establish permanent normal trade relations with Moscow as it joins the World Trade Organization. Rights groups here, in Europe, and in Russia want the Magnitsky Act to replace Jackson-Vanik so rights abusers can be sanctioned without disadvantaging American businesses.
The debate about the Magnitsky Act is playing out against the backdrop of Vladimir Putin’s rigged election and post-election crackdown on protesters. Pro-democracy activists and politicians in Russia have been trying to convince Western leaders to show support for their struggle. As opposition politician Garry Kasparov tweeted last night: “Foreign laws that punish Putin’s crooks and thugs are not anti-Russian. They are pro-Russian people and anti-Putin. Critical distinction!”
But as with Iran, the Obama administration remains unmoved by that distinction and continues to try to block sanctions in favor of “engagement.” Yet if Obama is truly dedicated to a policy dominated by engagement, he should take the advice of Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer, writing in the Financial Times about Russia’s pro-Western reformers:
For the moment, the Kremlin has managed to ignore these voices, acting like neither a Bric nor a G8 member in good standing. Washington should not make the same mistake. If U.S. and European leaders genuinely want to build new ties with Moscow, these are the people they should be talking to. hairy women hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php https://www.zp-pdl.com быстрые займы на карту
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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
