Full Jackson-vanik Waiver Unlikely Because of Baltic Crisis, Says Bush

President Bush says he will not recommend to Congress a complete waiver of Jackson-Vanik Amendment sanctions as long as the Soviet Union continues to use force against the independence movement in the Baltic republics.

“It will be extraordinarily difficult to pass anything of this nature in terms of waivers, given the present situation inside the Soviet Union,” Bush said Wednesday evening after a speech to the Economic Club of New York.

The president said he was “very happy with the exodus” of Jews from the Soviet Union, but the repression in the Baltics makes it difficult to move trade relations with the Soviets forward.

Last December, Bush announced a waiver of certain restrictions in the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. That allowed the Soviet Union to receive up to $1 billion in U.S. government-guaranteed credits to buy wheat and other U.S. food products.

But Bush did not lift the major provision of the amendment, which bars the Soviet Union from receiving most-favored-nation trade benefits. He said that the Supreme Soviet must first pass long-promised legislation codifying emigration reforms.

According to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, the emigration reform legislation is item 15 on the agenda proposed by the Supreme Soviet’s Legislative Committee and therefore unlikely to come up in its spring session.

The Union of Councils opposes a complete waiver of Jackson-Vanik sanctions until the legislation is adopted and implemented, though it did not object to Bush’s decision to extend the trade credits last December.

Prior to Bush’s decision, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry had urged the president to waive all Jackson-Vanik sanctions for one year, including the ban on most-favored-nation trade benefits.