Soviet Jewish Emigration

The Carter Administration, noting the continuing increase in Soviet Jewish emigration, is consulting with key members of Congress on lifting trade barriers with the Soviet Union but says it has not reached a decision on specific measures.

Whether and when the U.S. should extend “most favored nation” treatment to the Soviet Union, now barred by the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act, arose yesterday at the State Department after the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported that 4418 Jews reached Vienna during March, a record number for any month. The previous high was 4408 in October 1973. That was the record year in Soviet Jewish emigration when 35,000 Jews were allowed to leave.

Asked whether the emigration flow is linked by the Soviet Union to more U.S. trade. the 1980 Olympics in Moscow or the SALT negotiations, the Department’s chief spokesman, Hodding Carter, replied he could not speak on Soviet linkage. Neither would he say that the present annual rate of some 50,000 emigrants a year was the “bench mark” for change as envisioned by the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. When the amendment was being adopted, a minimum of 60,000 a year was set by its supporters.

“We are pleased at the significant increase in Soviet Jewish emigration recorded in 1978 and continued at an upward level the first few-months of 1979,” Carter said. “We remain concerned about the lack of resolution of a number of long-term cases of Soviet Jews who have been refused emigration permission in the past.”

Carter said “we are consulting with the Congress and discussing within the Executive Branch the basic question at issue,” which is most favored nation treatment. “No decision has been made on it,” he said.