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                 US Senate Votes to Normalize Trade with Russia

   by Cindy Saine

   The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill that
   establishes permanent, normal trade relations between the United States
   and Russia.  The vote was 92 to 4.  The bill also contains a provision
   that would punish Russian human rights violators, which Moscow strongly
   rejects.

   Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who served as U.S. Trade
   Representative under former President George W. Bush, said normalizing
   trade relations between the United States and Russia has been a long
   time in the making, and he called it a proud day for U.S. businesses.

   Portman said that since Russia joined the World Trade Organization in
   August, the United States has been missing out on tremendous export
   opportunities.

   "Russia is now the 9th largest economy.  Unfortunately, we are
   underperforming in the Russian market.  The United States, the world's
   greatest exporter, now only accounts for five percent of Russia's
   imports.  Our competitors in Europe have a 40 percent share of the
   Russian market.  China holds a 16 percent share of that market," he
   said.

   Several lawmakers from both major political parties stressed that
   political changes in Russia should be recognized, saying that today's
   Russia is not yesterday's Soviet Union.

   The measure combines two bills -- the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik
   Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.  One part
   repeals a Cold War-era provision known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment,
   that linked favorable U.S. tariffs on Russian goods to the rights of
   Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate.

   Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana explained the second part of
   the legislation, known as the Magnitsky Act.

   "The bill would punish those responsible for the death of
   anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and others who commit human
   rights violations in Russia.  It would do so by restricting their U.S.
   visas and freezing their U.S. assets," he said.

   Reacting to the bill's passage, Republican Senator John McCain paid
   tribute to Magnitsky.

   "I think we are sending a signal to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,
   and to the Russian kleptocracy that these kinds of abuses of human
   rights will not be tolerated without us responding in some appropriate
   fashion," he said.

   Russian Foreign Ministry officials have been very critical of the
   Magnitsky provision. Before the vote, they said that if the measure
   passed, Moscow would respond in what they called an "appropriate
   manner."

   Russia expert Robert Legvold of Columbia University in New York sees at
   least one way Russian lawmakers might retaliate.

   "The Duma will pass comparable legislation.  And they will apply
   sanctions both on assets and travel visas to Americans that are accused
   of being complicit in what they see as a violation of law.  And the
   expectation is that it probably will be tied to people associated with
   [the U.S. detention facility at] Guantanamo Bay[, Cuba]," he said.

   Analyst Andrew Kuchins at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
   International Studies says Moscow's warnings might be more severe than
   any action taken.

   "I don't think that the Russian response will be all that great to the
   Magnitsky legislation when they look at things operationally.  I think
   this might be a case where 'the bark was greater than the bite' [i.e.,
   the rhetoric is more severe than the actual response]," he said.

   The U.S. House of Representatives passed the combined bill on Russian
   trade and human rights last month, so the measure now goes to President
   Barack Obama who is expected to sign it into law quickly.
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   th-russia/1559950.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-senate-votes-to-normalize-trade-with-russia/1559950.html