Bush May Not Waive Trade Sanctions During Summit Meeting with Gorbachev

It appears increasingly doubtful that President Bush will waive trade sanctions against the Soviet Union during his upcoming summit meeting here with Mikhail Gorbachev, though the two leaders may sign a trade agreement.

The hitch is the Soviet Union’s delay in enacting a major emigration reform law pending in the Supreme Soviet.

The Bush administration on Friday reiterated that the Soviets must enact and implement the legislation before the United States lifts restrictions on U.S.-Soviet trade spelled out in the 1975 Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the U.S. Trade Act.

“There has to be codification and implementation of an emigration law that meets international standards,” said Richard Boucher, the State Department’s deputy spokesman.

Jackson-Vanik denies most-favored-nation trade benefits to the Soviet Union, among them lower U.S. tariffs on Soviet exports to the United States. The 1975 amendment conditions the granting of MFN status to Communist countries on their having liberal emigration policies that satisfy the United States.

To meet Jackson-Vanik standards, the Soviets last year drafted an emigration reform bill that would standardize procedures for considering applications of those seeking to leave the country.

TRADE PACT NEAR COMPLETION

The sweeping emigration law, which would allow Soviet Jews and others to immigrate to the country of their choice, has passed its first reading in the Supreme Soviet, the parliamentary body of the Soviet legislature.

But it has yet to be read a second time in the Supreme Soviet, which would be a vote of final approval.

Mark Levin, associate executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said U.S. officials have told him the Soviet congress plans to act on the bill around May 22.

That leaves little time if the Soviets want to gain a presidential waiver of Jackson-Vanik during the Bush-Gorbachev summit meeting, which runs from May 30 to June 3.

Bush suggested the spring summit as a target date for relaxing U.S. trade sanctions when he and Gorbachev met off the coast of Malta in November.

A State Department expert on the Soviet Union said Bush is still hoping to sign the trade agreement at the summit, but that the president has not expressed a similar deadline for waiving Jackson-Vanik sanctions.

There is “a strong implication that he would want to waive it about that time, but again he has not explicitly said it,” said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But even if Bush waives Jackson-Vanik, the trade accord will not take effect at the summit, because it requires congressional ratification.

U.S. and Soviet negotiators holding talks in Paris were reported late last week to be close to completing a trade agreement. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Julius Katz was quoted as predicting the pact would be signed at the summit.

WAIVER COULD BE REVERSED

A State Department official said Friday that three or four trade issues are yet to be resolved, but added, “They arc not deal busters. They are fairly manageable points.” He refused to say what the issues were.

After completion of a trade agreement and approval of the Soviet emigration law, “the president, as he has said he would, would waive the Jackson-Vanik requirements,” deputy spokesman Boucher said. Bush has said he would invoke his authority to issue a one-year waiver of the amendment’s sanctions.

After the first year, Congress would review the waiver annually and could vote at any time to revoke it.

David Harris, Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee, said the waiver is “not an irreversible process. In theory, it permits reconsideration at a later date if Soviet performance changes.”

The National Conference on Soviet Jewry, an umbrella group of 47 Jewish organizations, said last June it would support a presidential waiver if Bush received “appropriate assurances” from Soviet authorities in four key areas, including Soviet casing of restrictions on those with alleged access to “state secrets” and “poor relatives” blocked from emigrating by family members needing their financial support.

The Soviet draft law on emigration reform addresses both restrictions.

Harris of AJCommittee and Levin of the National Conference noted that the umbrella group’s position does not require “faithful implementation” or even passage of a sweeping emigration reform law. It merely requires the president to be satisfied that such changes will be made.

Conceivably, the National Conference could react positively to the waiver even if there were only a one-week implementation period of the reform law before the summit, with Bush saying he had received the appropriate assurances.

By contrast, the other major Soviet Jewry umbrella group, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, opposes a waiver until the emigration reforms arc shown to be working.

“The bottom line for us has been performance,” said Levin of the National Conference. He said the organization’s executive board will discuss its stance at a meeting on May 22 and 23.