Speech #1000074636

Mr. President. in 1975. Congress passed the JacksonVanik amendment which stipulated that a nonmarket country that is a Communist country could receive most favored nation status from us. the United States. only if it abides by basic human rights principles. particularly emigration. Today Romania. Hungary. and the Peoples Republic of China received MFN status under JacksonVanik. While Hungary and China have relatively respectable records of present emigration. Romania has not. Romania fails to allow thousands of its citizens to emigrate and continues to harass those who apply to leave that country to come to the West. While Romania attempted to comply with increased emigration requirements until 1984. since that time the number of people permitted to emigrate has dropped from 21.284 in 1984 to 17.350 in 1985. and 15.222 in 1986. The State Department country report on human rights practices for 1987 states. and I quote "Official policy continues to oppose emigration for any purpose but family reunification. Those who seek to leave Romania continue to face harassment designed to dissuade them and others who might be considering permanent departure. Successful applications take between 1 and 5 years before exit approval is granted. The government refused to allow some Romanians to apply for emigration passports at all." Der Spiegel magazine reports that the Federal Republic of Germany has paid head taxes. about 12.000 deutsche marks from Romanians who emigrate yearly. The pricetag at this time is about 8.000 deutsche marks. or 8.480 U.S. dollars per person. Mr. President. JacksonVanik specifically states that MFN privileges not be granted to any country that imposes more than a nominal tax. levy. fine. fee. or other charge on any citizen as a consequence of the desire of such citizen to emigrate. Clearly 8.000 deutsche marks is not to be considered nominal. While JacksonVanik uses the right of free emigration as a litmus test by which to measure progress on human rights. I believe it is impossible for Congress to properly ignore Romanias human rights abuses in other areas. Religious persecution is pervasive in Romania.