Chairman. within the next few weeks. the House will have before it the 1973 trade bill. One of the most controversial provisions in this legislation concerns the granting of mostfavorednation status to the Soviet Union. an issue which has not yet been resolved by the House Ways and Means Committee. I am an original coauthor of the JacksonVanik amendment to deny mostfavorednation status to the Soviet Union because of its discriminatory emigration policies. directed mainly toward Soviet Jews. The repressiveness of the Soviet Unions treatment of Soviet Jews has raised a cry of protest among the American people that we must not barter human rights and freedoms for trade or political convenience. As intolerable as the Soviet Unions emigration policy toward Soviet Jews is. the reasons for withholding mostfavorednation status seem to me even broader and deeper. There is. of course. a reason why many Soviet Jews and others are seeking to emigrate from the Soviet Union. and not only to be reunited with their families and loved ones here in the United States. in Israel. or other parts of the free world. The philosophy embraced by the Soviet Government has led to a negation of the basic rights that are guaranteed to every human being. Jews in the Soviet Union do not have freedom to worship. their synagogues have been closed as well as their schools.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration