Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.) said today that he hoped an agreement would be reached with the Ford Administration this week on the Soviet trade-emigration issue but indicated that the deadlock still has not been broken. “I hope we will have something this week,” Jackson told a news conference. He said he had made a new proposal to the Administration that contained various options but would not say what the proposal was.
Jackson and his colleagues, Sens. Jacob K. Javits (R.NY) and Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn.) have been conferring regularly with President Ford and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger on revising the language of the Jackson Amendment that would bar credits and most favored nation status for the Soviet Union unless Moscow eases its emigration restrictions on Jews and others.
The Senators reportedly have proposed a one-year trial period in which the Russians would receive trade concessions. But the White House would have to demonstrate after a year that the Russians were complying in order to have Congress continue to waive the restrictions. The Ford Administration insists that the waiver should remain in force indefinitely unless Congress decides to veto it.
Jackson described his amendment as “a pioneering step” insofar as trade with the Communist bloc countries is concerned. “I assume there will be a substantial number of gentiles as well as Jews applying to emigrate,” he said.
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