Senate Approves Sanctions, 84-14 : Bill Bans Some S. Africa Imports; Less Stringent Than House Version

The Republican-controlled Senate, acting with enough bipartisan support to override a threatened presidential veto, Friday approved economic sanctions against South Africa intended to express U.S. scorn for apartheid.

The sanctions, passed by a vote of 84 to 14, are less stringent than those in a House-passed bill providing for total divestiture of U.S. investments in South Africa and a ban on trade of all commodities except strategic minerals. The Senate specifically rejected the House version, 65 to 33.

A House-Senate conference committee now must draft final legislation that strikes a balance between the two versions. President Reagan has cautioned that he will veto any sanctions measure that he views as “punitive” toward South Africa.

“I believe this can be the beginning of the end of apartheid,” declared Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). “Nothing will stop a measure as strong or stronger than this one from becoming the law of the land. A presidential veto will not stop it.”

Cranston, Wilson Vote Yes

Like Cranston, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif) voted to approve the bill. Opposing the bill were 14 Republicans.

The Senate measure would ban imports of uranium, coal and textiles; prohibit many new investments in South Africa and loans to the Pretoria government; terminate U.S. landing rights for South African Airways, and bar deposits in U.S. banks by the South African government or government-owned companies.

In addition, the bill was strengthened substantially by an amendment by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would immediately ban U.S. imports of South African iron, steel and agricultural products and prohibit American firms from exporting crude oil to South Africa. The Senate adopted Kennedy’s proposal by voice vote, after voting 55 to 44 against a motion to kill it.

Kennedy, noting that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had promised to support a ban on steel imports, argued that his proposal would allow the United States to act in concert with measures to be taken by the European Communities and the Commonwealth nations. Even before Kennedy’s amendment, the Senate bill would have restricted some South African steel imports.

The United States buys more than $118 million in rice, corn, sugar and other agricultural products from South Africa each year, and Europeans spend about $450 million annually for South African fruits and vegetables. U.S. petroleum exports to South Africa account for an estimated $120 million in sales each year.

Feared Narrowed Support

The Senate Republican leadership fought unsuccessfully to defeat the Kennedy amendment on grounds that it might narrow the bill’s broad bipartisan support and make it more difficult for Congress to override a presidential veto. It takes a two-thirds majority of those voting in both the House and Senate to override a veto.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, accused Kennedy of protectionist motives. He insisted that Congress would dilute its strong moral statement against apartheid by using the measure to reduce South African competition for hard-hit U.S. industries such as agriculture and steel.

“It’s a great temptation while we are fighting apartheid--fighting sin--to also fight trade,” Lugar said.

Although he failed to defeat the Kennedy amendment, Lugar later used the same argument successfully to persuade the Senate to defeat, 54 to 45, an effort by Senate Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) to halt imports from South Africa of fluorspar, a mineral used in toothpaste and steel production. U.S. fluorspar producers have been hurt by imports.

While voting to halt farm imports from South Africa, the Senate also decided to resume providing credits to encourage that country to buy U.S. agricultural goods. The proposal by Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) was particularly popular among senators who, like Nickles, are seeking reelection this year in farm states. It passed, 55 to 45.

Under a proposal by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) that was accepted by voice vote, South Africa’s sugar quota would be transferred to the Philippines.

Added Curbs Possible

The Senate bill also outlines measures that the President may take if the South African government fails to begin dismantling apartheid within a year. These steps include banning the import of diamonds, food, and strategic minerals; prohibiting South African deposits in U.S. banks, and ending U.S. military assistance for countries such as Israel that are believed to be circumventing the international embargo on arms shipments to Pretoria.

By a vote of 55 to 44, the Senate defeated an amendment by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) that would have imposed the additional sanctions automatically at the end of one year. Lugar said the proposal, by limiting the President’s prerogatives, would increase the likelihood of a veto.

Under the Senate-passed bill, the President has the authority to lift or modify the sanctions if the South African government frees black leader Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners and takes any three of the following steps: repeals the current state of emergency, legalizes militant anti-apartheid organizations that have been banned, repeals the laws that control where blacks can live and work, and promises good-faith negotiations with representatives of the black majority.

‘Wouldn’t Trade With Hitler’

The House bill that the Senate rejected, 65 to 33, was offered by Cranston, who condemned the Senate bill as too weak. “In confronting the evils of apartheid, half measures are not good enough,” he argued. “We wouldn’t trade with Adolf Hitler in his day and we shouldn’t trade with South Africa in our day.”

On the other end of the political spectrum, conservatives tried without success to make the point that Congress should not impose stricter penalties on South Africa than have been enforced against the Soviet Union.

“We prohibit U.S. investment in South Africa,” Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) declared indignantly. “Shall we also prohibit investment in the Soviet Union? Oh, no! We’re frightened of the Soviet Union and we’re not frightened by South Africa.”

Wallop’s proposal to apply the same sanctions on the Soviet Union was defeated, 57 to 41. Another measure by Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey (R-N.H.) to revoke landing rights of Soviet airliners also failed, 66 to 33, and one by Sen. Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.) that would have blocked any provision of the bill deemed by Reagan to aid the Soviet Union failed, 73 to 26.

Also defeated, 81 to 18, was a proposal by Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.) that would have compensated at the rate of $1 a day any South African black put out of work by the sanctions, and would have lifted the sanctions if they caused unemployment in excess of 40,000 jobs.