Senate Votes to Suspend Angola Trade Benefits

The Senate Friday voted to suspend valuable trade benefits on Angolan imports, including oil, for at least six months and until President Reagan certifies that all Cuban and Soviet troops have left Angola and democratic elections have been held.

The suspension was adopted on a voice vote with little debate as an alternative to the total trade embargo on Angolan products that failed a Senate vote last week.

Both measures were seen as a way to press for a settlement to the country’s 12-year civil war and to force Cuban troops to withdraw from the West African nation.

The trade benefits suspension was approved as part of a foreign trade bill the Senate is expected to pass next Tuesday.

No Breakthrough in Talks

The trade bill then must clear a House-Senate conference committee this autumn before it can be sent by the full Congress to President Reagan for his signature into law.

Meanwhile, the State Department said that talks this week in Angola with the Marxist leadership produced “no breakthrough” in efforts to negotiate a southern Africa peace settlement.

Chester A. Crocker, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, met with the Angolan leadership Tuesday and Wednesday in Luanda, the latest in a series of contacts with that government with which the United States has no diplomatic relations.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said the Administration was “pleased with the resumption of direct talks” with Angola. “But we are interested in results from such talks. There was no breakthrough from Mr. Crocker’s visit,” he said.

Cuban Troops at Issue

“The Angolan leadership does not yet appear to be united about how to proceed. We are prepared to proceed with the diplomatic process when the Angolan side signals that it has made the necessary decisions.”

The United States insists on a withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, where the government is battling the U.S.-backed guerrillas of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Redman said the Angolan government “is well aware of the decisions that need to be taken if the tragic conflicts in Angola and Namibia are to be resolved.”

Crocker has been attempting to arrange a southern Africa settlement based on a U.N. peace plan that calls for a cease-fire and a demilitarized zone 31 miles deep on each side of Namibia’s borders with Angola and Zambia that would be patrolled by U.N. peacekeeping forces.

Namibia, also known as South-West Africa, borders Angola and is administered by South Africa under a disputed mandate. The U.N. Security Council has called on South Africa to withdraw and for Namibia to gain independence. Guerrillas based in Angola are battling the South African forces in Namibia.