Polish Amnesty Prompts U.S. to Consider Ending Its Sanctions Against Warsaw

The Reagan Administration is considering ending economic sanctions against Poland as a result of the Warsaw government’s recent amnesty for political prisoners, a State Department official said Sunday.

The official said no decision has been made, however, on final lifting of the sanctions, which were originally imposed five years ago after Poland’s declaration of martial law.

Some of the measures were repealed earlier. The most important remaining ones are a ban on new U.S. credit guarantees and suspension of “most-favored-nation” trade status, which provides the same low tariffs that apply to most non-Communist nations. The only Communist countries currently enjoying “most-favored-nation” status are Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and China.

Released Last Month

Poland released more than 200 political prisoners, including some of the country’s best-known dissidents, last month. At the time, Administration officials said the sanctions almost certainly would be lifted, provided the amnesty was a real one.

However, one official recalled that many of the dissidents released under earlier amnesties were later rearrested. This official said Washington wants to wait to make sure that procedure will not be repeated with those released last month.

A State Department paper advocating removal of the sanctions has been prepared, but officials said Secretary of State George P. Shultz has not yet approved it. If Shultz goes along, White House approval would also be required.

Curbs Cost $15 Billion

Officials said the review was ordered because of the Polish amnesty. They said the matter was not related to the U.S.-Soviet summit in Iceland.

The Polish government has estimated that the sanctions cost the already strained Polish economy about $15 billion, about half of the country’s pressing $31-billion external debt.

The Polish Communist Party newspaper Trybuna Ludu said in a dispatch quoted by United Press International, “We have the moral right to expect elementary compensation in the form of a restoration of normal (economic) relations” with the United States.

Removal of U.S. economic sanctions also would provide a substantial political boost to the Polish regime.