U.S. Should Reassess Jackson-vanik, World Jewish Congress Leader Says

It is time for the United States to re-evaluate its restrictions on trade with the Soviet Union, in light of profound changes instituted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the World Jewish Congress said Wednesday night.

Speaking in Philadelphia to the World Affairs Council, Edgar Bronfman said the U.S. government should consider waiving such restrictions under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which links the granting of most-favored-nation trade status to freedom of emigration for Jews and other minorities.

His remarks, which were reported by the WJC office here, are the latest indication that the American Jewish community will soon drop its opposition to waiving the 1975 amendment’s restrictions. Sources in the community believe such a policy change will occur by June.

Bronfman said his recommendations were based on analyses undertaken with members of the East-West Forum, an international organization of policy-makers and scholars he convened three years ago to arrive at the best management possible of East-West relations.

“The Soviets have gone far toward answering the problems that led the U.S. to put the Jackson-Vanik Amendment into law,” said Bronfman. “This sea change calls for an energetic and imaginative Western response.”

“Should the Soviets continue on their current path,” Bronfman reasoned, “the United States administration should review Jackson-Vanik restrictions, which prohibit most-favored-nation status on tariff issues to any non-market economy country that restricts emigration.”

NJCRAC SAID TO FAVOR WAIVER

Sources now say they believe the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, as well as the WJC, will probably ask for the waiver in or around June.

NJCRAC is believed to have decided on an 18-month waiver in a closed-door vote at its annual plenum last month in Washington.

NJCRAC officials refused to verify this at the time, but there were reports to that effect in the Long Island Jewish World and Congressional Quarterly.

On Thursday, Dr. Lawrence Rubin, associate executive vice chairman of NJCRAC, confirmed that the umbrella group had held a full discussion on Jackson-Vanik during the February conclave.

“A consensus did emerge which will be articulated within the process of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry at its executive committee meeting in June,” Rubin said.

The National Conference on Tuesday released a statement affirming that the organization is continuing to reassess its policy on the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

The statement was released by Shoshana Cardin, conference chairwoman, who was attending an executive committee meeting of the World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Jerusalem.

At the NJCRAC plenum in February, Cardin had argued against waiving the amendment, cautioning against “unjustified euphoria” over Soviet changes.

On Thursday, National Conference spokesman Jerry Strober said the group is not presently agreeing to a waiver, but is “looking at a number of factors, obviously having to do with emigration.”

Among them, he said, are the “rate of Jewish emigration and its sustained basis, the question of long-term refuseniks, the question of whether the Soviets will promulgate a new codification of emigration law, and whether Secretary-General Gorbachev will fulfill the promise that he made in his December 1988 U.N. speech, when he talked about putting strict limitations on state secrecy.”

Strober said the National Conference would “continue its process of assessing our position vis-a-vis U.S.-Soviet trade policy, looking toward a new policy in the near future if emigration and the climate in which it functions are sustained.”