Speech #940118393

I think it is also of interest that Romania continues to see a trade agreement with the United States actively and vigorously In the face of the obvious disapproval by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union. as the Members will recall. denounced their own trade agreement with the United States by reason of the immigration requirements set by Congress. Romania was the only east European state which did not endorse the Soviet action. So Romania does seem to have a special position with respect to the Soviet bloc nations as far as trade is concerned. As the chairman of the subcommittee has said. they have made clearly apparent efforts to meet the immigration requirements of the Trade Act. I must say that the statistics have been somewhat erratic in this respect. I. for one. am not sure of all the results behind the erratic statistics. but let me review a few ofthem that are somewhat reassuring at this point. Only 95 persons immigrated to the United States from Romania between January and June of this year. However. the State Department reports that it has picked up. with 694 applications for departure being approved over the last 2 months. Available information indicates that there are about 200 Romanian Jews who have been approved for immigration to Israel so far this year. and about half of that number have actually left the country. Of course. the President will recommend an extension of the waiver under section 402(c) of the Trade Act only if the immigration trend continues upward. or if there are other clearly demonstrable reasons why it is not. such as tension in the Middle East which does affect emigration from Romania. as one would expect. Let us look at the economic considerations. quite apart from these political considerations. I think the political considerations indicate that we are taking a justified risk in extending most favored nation status to Romania as a possible bellwhether among the Soviet bloc nations and as a general recognition of her special status between East and West.