Yesterday. with all the skill of an industrial lobbyist. the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union entertained a number of Senators at lunch. And with the familiar tactics that accompany such lunches. he offered an elaborate display of statistics and extenuation. According to Brezhnev. emigration from the Soviet Union is virtually free. What is so curious about all this is that if Mr. Brezhnev is right--if virtually all those Soviet citizens wishing to emigrate are in fact free to gothen he need not fear. he need not even object to the Jackson amendment: for all that amendment does is condition trade concessions on free emigration. The amendmentprinted at page 11549. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. April 10. 1973which is sponsored by 77 Senators and more than 280 Members of the House. provides that the extension of mostfavorednation treatment and U.S. Government credits. credit guarantees or investment guarantees to the Soviet Union and other Communist countries cannot take place unless the President reports to the Congress that the country in question does not deny its citizens the right or opportunity to emigrate. Therefore. if emigration from the Soviet Union were truly free. the addition of the Jackson amendment to the statute books would not limit the Presidents authority to make trade concessions to the Soviet Union. In fact. it is my great hope that by the time our amendment is enacted into lawand we intend to see that it isthe practice in the Soviet Union will be such as to permit the President without hesitation to make the statutory report of compliance. But the truth is that the Soviet Union continues to deny its citizens the right and opportunity to emigrate. The statistics that Mr. Brezhnev cited at lunch yesterday are wrong and misleading.
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emigrate emigration