But despite these serious problems. it is in our national interest to extend MFN status to Romania for the coming year in order to try to work with Romania on these issues which are of deep concern to many of us in the Congress. Therefore. I urge support of the Presidents decision of June 3. 1986. for several reasons: First. on the narrow legal criterion of the 1974 Trade Act and JacksonVanik amendment which ties Romanias MFN status to emigration. Romania has been fairly responsive. During the 11 years of MFN status for Romania. over 150.000 persons have emigrated from Romania. One out of every 160 Romanians has emigrated legally. Second. the record of 11 years of annual MFN review has provided leverage over Romania on human rights and other issues. We have had success under present policies. Our ability to continue to try to resolve 4.000 pending reunification cases concerning emigration to the United States will depend in large measure on a continuation of those policies. It is my understanding that close to half of these 4.000 cases are on their way to resolution. We hope to try to make further progress on these issues. and to keep the door open for appeals on specific cases.
Keywords matched
emigration emigrated