Posts Tagged ‘WTO’
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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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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Senate Finance Reports Measure on PNTR For Russia, Moldova; Magnitsky Act Included
Key Development: Magnitsky bill included, vote is unanimous.
Next Steps: Kirk, Baucus, Camp to meet July 19.
The Senate Finance Committee July 18 unanimously reported legislation designed to allow the president to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia and Moldova.
The bill would also replace human rights sections of the Trade Act of 1974 with provisions, named after deceased tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky, targeting corrupt government officials in Russia and elsewhere.
In his opening remarks, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) noted that the measure will make permanent the normal trade relations the United States already has had with Russia for the past 20 years and should double U.S. exports to Russia in five years.
The opportunities for increased trade with Russia are related to the massive Eurasian country joining the World Trade Organization in August after a 19-year accession process. The upper house of the country’s legislature July 18 approved the WTO accession package (see related report).
Baucus said hundreds of companies and trade associations have come out in favor of PNTR, as well as U.S. and Russian Jewish groups, including the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Section 402 of the Trade Act, the so-called Jackson-Vanik Amendment, requires an annual review of respect for emigration rights that was originally intended to support Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union. The bill would terminate the application of this section along with the others in Title IV.
The annual review constitutes a condition according to WTO rules and is therefore at odds with the organization’s core principle of unconditional most favored nation (MFN) status, which is the term for PNTR used in international treaties. Absent MFN, Russia is not required to grant the terms of its accession package to the United States and U.S. companies.
Baucus noted that Moldova is the only WTO member with which the United States does not have permanent normal trade relations. “Like Russia,” Baucus said, “Moldova has allowed freedom of emigration for many years, and Moldova joined the WTO in 2001.”
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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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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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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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