Speech #930279111

It is the United States that initially proposed and pressed for action on a new round of GATT negotiations in the Tokyo declaration signed last year. Ironically. it is the failure of the United States to pass a trade bill that has so far held up and now stands in the way of a meaningful negotiationprecisely at a time when closer cooperation is most desperately needed. Some have charged that the responsibility for the delay in the trade bill lies with the amendment introduced by Senator JACKSON. which I have cosponsored. concerning emigration and mostfavorednation treatment for the Soviet Union. I believe this view is false. It is perfectly proper that before granting the concession of mostf avorednation status we should ask the Soviet Union to live up to its international commitments in this area of human rights. This is not a question of being antiSoviet or of seeking to interfere in Internal affairs. The International Declaration on Human Rights makes clear that emigration is not merely an internal matter. The right of Soviet Jews to emigrate free of harassment is as important to Americans as any number of other concessions we have sought from the Soviets in negotiations such as the Conference on European Security and the Berlin negotiations. Second. it was the strategy of the administration to tie together the mostfavorednation issue and other urgent aspects of the trade bill. Moreover. once the amendment was introduced. it was the administration that let the issue of emigration languish before taking serious steps to negotiate a solution. I am encouraged by reports that the administration is making a serious effort in this regard and that progress is being made. I hope a satisfactory agreement on this point can be concluded promptly. It is my firm belief that a successful outcome will be most facilitated if we in the Congress steadfastly support the principle of the right to emigrate and the end to harassment. Global inflation cannot be stopped by the policies of individual countries alone. During the first half of 1974 nearly all of the major industrialized and developing countries represented in the GATT suffered from catastrophic rates of Inflation.