Posts Tagged ‘pntr’
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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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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In Trade Deal With Russia, U.S. Plans Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses
In the two decades since the end of the cold war, the United States has extended its economic reach to the far corners of the old Communist world, establishing full-fledged trade ties with the likes of Ukraine, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Even still-Communist nations like China and Vietnam have been granted full trading status. But not Russia.
That seems about to change. For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, a bipartisan coalition in Congress has agreed to normalize trade relations with Russia, the onetime adversary in the long struggle between capitalism and communism. But at a time of renewed tension with Moscow, lawmakers have decided to grant the status with one large caveat — that Russian officials be held responsible for human rights abuses.
Legislation moving through the House and Senate with support from both parties would lift restrictions imposed in the 1970s under the so-called Jackson-Vanik law, permanently establishing normal trade relations with Russia, one of just a handful of nations left in the world still denied them. In doing so, Congress would potentially double Russian-American trade and fulfill a goal that eluded Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Yet in imposing sanctions for human rights violations, lawmakers are defying not just the Kremlin of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, but also President Obama, who while embracing the normalization of trade lobbied against mixing the issues. In effect, foreign policy experts said, the legislation represents a judgment by Congress that in his effort to repair relations with Moscow, Mr. Obama has not paid enough attention to freedom and democracy.
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Baucus Announces Markup of Jobs Bill Establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Russia
US Senate Committee on Finance
With Russia Joining the WTO, Finance Chairman’s Mark Will Enable U.S. Businesses to Capitalize on Increased Market Access.
Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today released his Chairman’s Mark of a bill to establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia and remove Russia from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, which will enable U.S. businesses to capitalize on Russia’s growing market. Baucus also scheduled a markup to take place at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 18,in Room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Baucus’s bill would support and create thousands of U.S. jobs across every sector of the American economy, including manufacturing, agriculture and services, by helping double U.S. exports to Russia within five years.
“Increasing our exports to Russia will help create new jobs and give America’s economy the shot in the arm it needs. Our exports to Russia will double within the next five years if we pass PNTR soon, which will mean thousands of jobs supported or created across the country. And this economic boost will come at no cost to us whatsoever. We will not have to change one single tariff or trade law,” Baucus said. “Russia is joining the WTO no matter what Congress does – their legislature has already voted and put the wheels in motion – so we need to act soon. My bill will put American businesses, farmers, ranchers and workers in a position to succeed and grow, and that’s exactly what our economy and workers need.”
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, recently approved an agreement to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, is expected to take up the measure soon, after which Russia will officially join the WTO 30 days later. As part of the “accession” process, as it is known, Russia will lower tariffs and increase market access for foreign businesses from countries with which it has permanent normal trade relations. Congress must pass legislation establishing PNTR by the time Russia joins the WTO for U.S. businesses to see the full economic benefits of the deal.
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Magnitsky Act: Congress Should Uphold America’s Commitment to Human Rights
On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relation Committee unanimously passed the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which would ban Russian officials involved in Magnitsky’s death from entering the U.S. and using U.S. financial institutions. The bill was cleared earlier this month by a House committee.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov called the Senate committee’s decision “counterproductive” and threatened “harsh” retaliation, including banning certain U.S. officials from visiting Russia. This past May, the Russian ambassador also threatened to retaliate if the Magnitsky act becomes law.
Be that as it may, the Obama Administration and Congress should not yield to Russian threats but should uphold America’s commitment to human rights. Russian officials should have thanked American lawmakers for stepping in where Russian law enforcement failed abysmally.
Magnitsky’s in a Russian prison is a demonstration of rampant corruption in the Russian state’s highest echelons. Magnitsky was a 37-year-old attorney and accountant who worked for Hermitage, then the largest Western private equity fund in Russia. In the course of his work, he uncovered a giant alleged corruption scheme that involved embezzlements of $230 million from the Russian treasury by law enforcement and tax officials.
After making accusations, he was placed in prison, where he was beaten mercilessly by guards and denied medical care, which led to his tragic death. An investigation by the Russian Presidential Council on Human Rights has confirmed as much. However, this has not resulted in the punishment of those involved. On the contrary, some of the culprits were even promoted and decorated.
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Magnitsky showdown nears
The Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate backed on Tuesday the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which, if passed by Congress and the U.S. president, will impose sanctions on some 60 Russian officials.
The bill will deny entry to the United States and freeze the accounts of those allegedly responsible for the persecution and death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was allegedly killed in jail in 2009 after exposing a graft scheme for a tax refund of $230 million set up by a group of Russian law enforcers, tax officers and judges.
Supported unanimously by the Senate’s panel, the bill has fairly good chances of being adopted. “The White House has never indicated an inclination to veto this legislation,” the office of the bill’s sponsor, Senator Ben Cardin, told The Moscow News.
The only way the bill can be withdrawn is if Russia starts a murder investigation into the death of Magnitsky and the crime he exposed, U.S. lawmakers say.
“If Russia was to prosecute those responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s death, there would no longer be a need to include those individuals on the public list,” Cardin’s office said.
However, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office started a criminal case against Magnitsky himself last August, charging him with embezzlement of the same $230 million in tax refunds.
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U.S. could feel effects of amendment meant to hurt Russia
Almost four decades ago, as the Cold War raged, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the Trade Act of 1974 aimed squarely at the Soviet Union’s policy preventing Jews from emigrating from the USSR.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment, which denied favorable trade relations to the Soviet Union, worked. In 1991, Russia stopped slapping exit fees on Jews who wished to emigrate and they have been free to leave ever since.
But the amendment has stayed on the books even though it has outlived its purpose, a Cold War relic that infuriated the Kremlin. In reality, it was only symbolic; since 1994, presidents, Republicans and Democrats have certified annually that Russia complies with the amendment. In fact, the U.S. maintains normal trade relations with Russia.
As part of its “reset” with Moscow, the Obama administration urged Congress to abolish the amendment, to “graduate” Russia from Jackson-Vanik. Now, there’s an economic reason to do it.
Last December, after 18 years of trying, Russia was given the green light to join the World Trade Organization. Russia’s Parliament is expected to ratify and approve entry, and President Vladimir Putin to sign it by the end of July. Once that happens, the Jackson-Vanik amendment could end up hurting the U.S. instead of Russia.
Having it on the books means the U.S. is in violation of WTO rules requiring all members to grant other members “immediate and unconditional free trade.” The U.S. would not be able to take advantage of all the concessions Russia will make as a WTO member – including market liberalization, transparency, committing to intellectual property protection, eliminating nontariff barriers and other provisions – and that would mean higher tariffs for American businesses seeking access to Russian markets.
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Congressional Hearing Highlights the Need to Pass Magnitsky, PNTR to Russia
Yesterday and today, the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee held hearings on Russia’s abysmal human rights record and its looming accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The Obama Administration wants Congress to provide permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia and scrap the 1974 Cold War–era Jackson–Vanik amendment, which denied Russia most-favored-nation status in trade.
The Administration, represented by Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and International Trade Representative Ronald Kirk, argued that if Congress does not waive Jackson–Vanik for Russia,U.S.firms will be put at a disadvantage vis-à-vis everyone else when Russia enters the WTO this August.
Private-sector witnesses attending the House hearing included Caterpillar’s CEO Doug Oberhelman, Michigan Farm Bureau president Wayne Wood, president of Argus Ltd. Michael Rae, and senior vice president of Medtronics James P. Mackin.
Russia is one of the world’s largest economies. The President’s Export Council estimates that the currently meager U.S.exports to Russia could increase when Russia joins the WTO. As Burns said:
Congress has a choice: it can extend Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to Russia, giving American exporters and workers a level the [sic] playing field in one of the fastest growing markets in the world; or it can keep Jackson-Vanik in place, preventing American companies from reaping the benefits of an unprecedented opportunity to boost trade in a large and growing market.
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Senators, Obama administration aim for compromise on Russia trade
Senators and the Obama administration remain at odds over how to proceed on making trade ties permanent with Russia although they are working together on a way forward.
Senate Finance Committee members said Thursday are backing a plan to link legislation repealing Jackson-Vanik, which allow for grant normal permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Moscow, with a human rights bill that would punish Russian officials involved with the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in police custody.
Obama administration officials, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, told the Finance panel on Thursday that they prefer separate tracks for the two measures but will continue to work with lawmakers toward a compromise to pass a measure before the August recess.
Regardless of current differences, lawmakers and Obama administration officials agree that PNTR needs to be granted before Russia joins the World Trade Organziation (WTO) in August.
Burns acknowledged Thursday that there is a “constructive dialogue” continuing with lawmakers and that the administration’s concerns are being considered. He opted to reserve a final opinion on how the administration will react until a bill emerges from the Senate.
House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), who held a Wednesday hearing, is siding with the Obama administration in pressing for a “clean” PNTR bill.
Support is building on both sides of the Capitol to link the two bills as a way to let Congress express its dissatisfaction with Russia’s record on human rights.
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