Posts Tagged ‘senate’
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 Trade Bill Set to Advance in U.S. Senate, But Passage by August Recess Uncertain
A Senate panel appears headed to back Wednesday the lifting of trade restrictions on Russia, but the White House faces an uphill battle in its effort to win congressional approval before its long-time geopolitical rival joins the World Trade Organization as expected next month.
Several senators and private-sector supporters of legislation to approve permanent, normal trade relations with Russia said the bill is likely to clear its first major hurdle, by winning the backing of the Senate Finance Committee.
But a number of senators cast doubt on whether Congress can pass the bill before lawmakers leave town in early August for recess, raising the risk that U.S. companies will be put at a competitive disadvantage in trying to win Russian business. Rising tensions with Russia over Syria, Iran and human rights issues are complicating passage, with senators of both parties looking to attach measures to the trade bill to punish Russian human-rights violators.
“I’m very concerned about the human rights abuses and the bad behavior of Russia,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas.) Still, he and Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), the minority whip, predicted the Finance Committee would approve the bill.
“I think things are fairly well resolved, that the (trade bill) would be accompanied by the Magnitsky legislation,” said Mr. Kyl. He was referring to a measure, named after a Russian lawyer who died in prison after accusing Russian government officials of fraud, that would freeze assets and deny visas to Russian human-rights abusers.
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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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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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U.S. Congressmen Unmoved By Russian Visit To Protest Magnitsky Bill
U.S. congressmen appear to be unmoved following the visit of a Russian delegation to Washington this week aimed at protesting pending U.S. sanctions over the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Describing the Russian initiative as “too late,” the congressmen told RFE/RL that they expected the legislation to be signed into law. The move would deny visas to dozens of Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s death and also freeze any U.S. assets they may hold.
Senator Roger Wicker (Republican-Mississippi) is a member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, where the Magnitsky legislation was first initiated.
“The reports about this tragedy are not isolated,” he said. “There have been two independent reports inside Russia that indicated this was a violation of Mr. Magnitsky’s rights and an abusive process.
“So it’s going to be very difficult, I think, for one packet of information provided by a group of Russian [lawmakers] to overcome the huge body of information.”
Wicker was one of several U.S. lawmakers who met with Aleksei Chernyshev, Vitaly Malkin, Aleksandr Savenkov, and Valery Shnyakin — all members of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.
The delegation was in the U.S. capital to present the findings of a “preliminary parliamentary investigation” into the case of the deceased lawyer.
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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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A chance to stand up to Putin
In November 2009, the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death by guards after 358 days in “preventive custody” in Moscow. His offence had been to uncover a massive tax fraud scheme stretching high into the Russian government. The case became a cause célèbre, Exhibit A of the lawlessness and corruption that plagues the country’s business life.
Now, almost three years later, in a rare display of bipartisanship, the US Congress is moving to pass the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, denying visas to Russians implicated in human rights abuses and freezing their financial assets. Congress is absolutely right to pursue such legislation. But it is essential it does so in the right way. What would be wrong would be – as some on Capitol Hill demand – to link the passage of the Magnitsky Bill directly to the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
The latter is an obsolete vestige of the Cold War, dating from 1974 and imposing trade restrictions designed to force Moscow to accelerate the emigration of Soviet Jews. That problem no longer exists, and since 1990 Jackson-Vanik has been waived annually. It is time for it to go for good. Russia is about to join the World Trade Organisation. Not only will membership bind it further into a global system of rules and laws. If the US persists with Jackson-Vanik, it will itself be in violation of WTO rules. But to insist that Jackson-Vanik be replaced by the Magnitsky bill is the wrong course, playing into President Putin’s argument that Washington and the West are viscerally and irredeemably anti-Russian.
The Magnitsky Bill stands on its own merits. Yes, objections can be made. It is, by any standard, interference in the internal affairs of another country. Understandably, the Obama administration, anxious not to jeopardise Russian co-operation over international problems from Iran to Syria, is extremely wary of it. And who will decide which individuals are targeted – the State Department, or Congress? The measure could even prove counter-productive, further poisoning business practices in Russia as feuding factions and oligarchs seek to have each other placed on Washington’s blacklist.
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