Speech #930162490

Chairman. I rise in support of title IV of the Trade Reform Act. Title IV is the section dealing with freedom of emigration for Soviet Jewry. I was proud to be one of the original cosponsors in this Congress of the JacksonMillsVanik legislation to prohibit mostfavorednation trade concessions and trade credits to any country which limits freedom of emigration. As introdtiCcd in the House. this bill would additionally require the President to report to Congress every 6 months that recipients of American trade concessions did not restrict freedom of emigration. Concessions would have to be terminated if a country were to reimpose emigration restrictions. Congress has moved to restore the moral basis for our foreign policy by strongly supporting the JacksonMillsVanik legislation. It now has the endorsement of 362 of uur highest elected officials285 Ctngressmen and 77 Senators. The recent Mideast war has served only to strengthen the determination of Congress o see that the Soviet Union does not receive special economic favors from the United States until it shows a greater willingness to act humanely toward Jews and other minorities living within its borders and toward the goal of world peace. The Vanik amendment would restore to the legislation the prohibition on granting trade credits to those countries which restrict emigration. The Soviet Union has already received hundreds of millions of dollars in trade credits. mostly for American wheat. Billions of dollars more in trade credits are planned.