What I am suggesting. first and most important. is that President Bush should say clearly. publicly. and unequivocally that it is in the United States interest for American companies to invest in such joint ventures where former production and defense industry is going to be taken out of defense production and moved into commercial production. It is enormously important that the President himself send this signal to the American business community. Second. we can ensure that the State Department expedite visa applications by republic officials and republic entrepreneurs who need to travel regularly to the United States to consult with their American partners in these ventures. The same thing is true for American businesses in terms of their visits to the Soviet Republics. I am told by numerous people that they have trouble getting visas. and every time they want to go it has to be a separate visa. They cannot have any kind of a real carte blanche kind of authority for limited periods of time when the time element here is crucial. At a hearing on Soviet defense conversion last September. the Armed Services Committee was told our State Department is insisting on processing visa applications for each visit one at a time. rather than extending repeat business authority. Someone in the bureaucracy has to be given the signal that this is a unique moment in history. So far. they have not been given that signal.
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