Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. RosTENKOWSIa] for yielding this time to me. Mr. Speaker. I rise to support the granting of mostfavorednation status [MFN] to the Soviet Union. The JacksonVanik provision of the 1974 Trade Act forbade the granting of such status to a Communist country unless it permitted free emigration. Throughout the 1970s and into the mid1980s. the Soviet leadership ignored or violated the Helsinki commitments it had pledged to accept. Thousands of people were refused permission to leave the U.S.S.R.. as the word "refusenik" entered the lexicon of human rights and internationai relations. Many people in this Chamber can recount trips to Moscow.
Keywords matched
emigration