House Bars Soviet High-Tech Sales : Trade: Various types of U.S. computers and telecommunications equipment won’t be sold to Moscow until it meets certain demands.

The House voted Wednesday to forbid the sale of sophisticated U.S. computers, telecommunications equipment and other high-tech goods to the Soviet Union until it ends its economic boycott against breakaway Lithuania.

In the first congressional action since President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a trade agreement last week, the House also voted to ban such sales if Gorbachev carries out a threat to slow the emigration of Soviet Jews.

On a 390-24 vote, the House voted not to grant U.S. companies licenses to sell high-tech products to the Soviets unless President Bush certifies that Moscow is conducting negotiations with the Lithuanian republic, which has declared its independence from Moscow, “without economic coercion.”

The vote was on an amendment by Rep. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., to an Administration-opposed bill that would ease the export of high-tech goods to the Soviets, the fledgling democracies of Eastern Europe and U.S. allies.

On a voice vote, the House earlier agreed to forbid the high-tech sales if the Soviet Union restricts the emigration rights of Jewish citizens.

To take effect, the full bill would have to be approved by the House and then the Senate.

“Although the Soviet Union is moving toward peace and openness, it is not quite there,” Durbin said. “The Iron Curtain is still present when it comes to the Baltic republics.”

Since April 18, the Soviets have cut off supplies of oil, natural gas, other raw materials and medical supplies to Lithuania in response to its declaration of independence a month earlier.

Bush and Gorbachev signed an agreement Friday that would lower 40-year-old trade barriers between the two countries once the Supreme Soviet gives final approval to emigration legislation making it easier for Soviet citizens to emigrate or to visit the West.

Moscow is particularly interested in acquiring U.S. telecommunications and computer technology. During last week’s summit, for example, the Soviets signed an agreement with IBM for the purchase of computers to be used in schools.

In a joint Sunday news conference with Bush, Gorbachev, citing pressure on him from Egypt and Syria, threatened to begin denying exit visas to Soviet Jews if Israel continues to allow them to settle on disputed territory on the West Bank.

Official U.S. policy opposes Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Supporters of Israel say fewer than 1% of the Soviet emigres actually locate there.

Through other amendments, House lawmakers also expressed their dissatisfaction with President Bush’s decision last month to extend for another year most-favored-nation trade status with China despite the killings near Tiananmen Square in Beijing more than a year ago.

On a 393-15 vote, the House approved an amendment by Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., that would forbid Bush from approving any more exports of U.S.-built or U.S.-owned satellites to China.

The amendment, however, would not affect the export of three such satellites approved last December by Bush.

Opponents failed in several attempts to weaken the bill despite vehement claims by the Administration and other opponents that looser controls on high-tech sales will weaken the nation’s military security.

“The thrust of the bill is that business is more important than national security,” said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. “There are military and intelligence aspects to some of these telecommunications exports. We’re crazy to hand that stuff to the Soviet Union.”

Supporters, however, maintained that “cold warrior” attitudes should no longer dominate U.S. export policies.

“Karl Marx wasn’t smart enough to take on Jesus Christ, Adam Smith . . . and Thomas Jefferson simultaneously,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “We should accept our victory. Eastern Europeans are going to spend upwards of $140 billion in the next decade on telecommunications and we should get a chunk of it.”

Rep. Bill Frenzel, R-Minn., cited a study by the National Academy of Sciences estimating that the existing controls denied U.S. companies about $9.2 billion in exports in 1987 “with no perceptible increase in national security.”

The bill basically eases export controls on telecommunications equipment, computers and machine tools to the newly democratizing countries of Eastern Europe and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union.

U.S. manufacturers have repeatedly complained that they are being shut out of Eastern Europe’s developing economy while Japan, West Germany and South Korea gain toeholds.

The Administration last month announced that it intended to decontrol sales of most personal computers, some mainframe computers and some cellular and satellite ground stations. House critics contended that the measures do not go far enough in expanding trade opportunities, and earlier this week the Commerce Department told US West, the Rocky Mountain telephone company, it would deny permission to lay a high-capacity fiber optic cable across the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile:

* The United States and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on sharing food-processing information.

The agreement creates a team of U.S. and Soviet officials who will study the two nations’ food-processing systems and determine how U.S. technology and methods can be incorporated into the Soviet system.

* Yuri N. Chumakov, deputy Soviet minister of foreign economic relations, made it clear that if a U.S.-Soviet trade agreement wins congressional approval his country will be looking for U.S. loans to help the troubled Soviet economy.