Speech #940116786

Government credit programs under the JacksonVanik amendment. Along with providing the means for closer commercial relations with an Eastern European country which has managed to develop a relatively independent and relatively positive policy toward the West. implementation of this agreement should bring about a parallel accommodation in the equally important area of human relations. As the author of the EastWest trade and freedom of emigration provisions of the Trade Act of 1974. I especially want to address myself to the significance of approving Romanian eligibility for the affected trade benefits on that basis. pointing out some necessary reservations as well as the hopeful prospects. Under the terms of the compromise on trade and emigration in the Trade Act. the President may waive the trade restrictions in the free emigration section for a nonmarket country if he reports to the Congress that: First. He has determined that such waiver will substantially promote the objectives of this section. and Second. He has received assurances that the emigration practices of that country will henceforth lead substantially to the achievement of the objectives of this section. This formula was drafted jointly by the administration and the Congress. adopted by the Senate by a vote of 88 to 0. and signed into law by the President. Nevertheless. the Presidential report of April 24. 1975. exercising the waiver authority for Romania. fell far short of the language specified in the legislation. The President failed to report that he had received assurances on Romanian emigration and relied instead on a vague phrase relating to the "solution of humanitarian problems" in a 1973 joint declaration by then President Nixon and Romanian President Ceausescu. That declaration makes no mention of emigration and had yielded no progress on emigration since its signing. Furthermore. although the administration urged Congress to take into account the "sensitivity" of the issue by making our judgment on the basis of Romanian emigration performance rather than pressing for detailed assurances. Romanian performance both leading up to and in the period immediately following the Presidents action showed no improvement whatsoever which would allow Congress to determine that satisfactory assurances had been received. as required by law. Progress on Romanian emigration came only in recent weeks. after it became clear that Congress would withhold approval of the trade agreement in the absence of concrete evidence of movement to fill the gap in the Presidents report. In addition to continuing consultations with the State Department. for the past several weeks many of us in the Senate and House have been in close contact with representatives of the Romanian Government. with humanitarian organizations concerned with emigration. and with members of divided United StatesRomanian families who will be so personally affected by the resolution of this issue. Some of us also had the opportunity to stress the need for genuine progress at a meeting with President Ceausescu in Washington in early June. I believe that this was a very healthy interaction for all concerned. and I am encouraged by the spirit of cooperation with which the Romanian Government has recently responded. Some 1.250 emigration applications were approved in June. including primarily Romanians seeking to be reunited with families in the United States. and Romanians of Jewish and German origin who wish to go to Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany. respectively. This improved. if not entirely satisfactory. rate of approvals has been continuing in July. Gbviously. we expect that these approvals will mean that the persons receiving them will soon depart for their chosen destinations. My own decision to support the trade agreement at this time is based on the expectation that these signs mark the beginning of a steady upward trend in Romanian emigrationthe only real basis we have for determining the legitimacy of the Presidents waiver and. moreover. for determining whether a renewal of the waiver authority is justified when it comes before Congress in 11 months. The Senate Committee on Finance and the House Ways and Means Committee are to be congratulated for the strong legislative record they established both during the hearings on the trade agreement and in their reports on the resolution of approval last week to their respective Houses. By withholding action until progress on emigration was clearly discernible. both committees made full and. in my judgment. critically productive use of the time allotted to them for consideration of the trade agreement. I fully support their conclusion that the language of the Presidents report alone was not sufficient to allow favorable action on the part of the Congress. I also endorse their position that action on Romania is not to be interpreted as a precedent for countries other than Romania. It is the recent sharp increase in Romanian emigration and Romanias special circumstances in the Communist bloc which justify our willingness to extend the benefit of the doubt in this case. It should also be noted a relaxation of Romanian emigration restrictions would be consistent with the more liberal emigration policy practiced by Romania up through the mid1960s. as well as with the provisions on emigration in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. acceded to by Romania in 1970. Freer emigration is also in keeping with the family reunification provisions of the Conference on European Security and Cooperation declaration. which Romania is expected to sign later this month. Romanias earlier emigration practices and the cooperative attitude which the Romanian Government is apparently ready to renew provide a welcome contrast to the Soviet Unions dismissal of the human dimension of d6tente and hypocritical accession to the same international agreements. Mr. President. It seems to me that Romania is beginning to appreciate what the Soviet Union and the handful of nations bound to the Soviet Union have yet to understand: That emigration is cause for national embarrassment and international concern only when it is denied. and that the freer movement of peoples should be a bridge rather than an obstacle to improved EastWest relations. I hope that Romania has in fact decided to join the rest of the international community in respecting the fundamental human right to emigrate. and that the continued Romanian progress expected in this area will make it possible for Congress to renew Romanian eligibility for trade benefits next year. I thank the distinguished chairman of the committee and the distinguished Senator from Connecticut for yielding me time.