Jewry Council Seeks U.S. Trade Perks for Soviets

The National Council on Soviet Jewry Monday urged President Bush to give most-favored-nation trade benefits to the Soviet Union next year because of almost two years of sustained high levels of Jewish emigration.

The council, the largest organization lobbying against Soviet restrictions on Jewish emigration, said that, although Moscow does not yet allow free emigration, enough progress has been made to warrant lower tariffs.

The council urged Bush to grant Moscow a one-year waiver of a 1974 law that requires punitively high tariffs on Soviet goods to protest restrictions on emigration.

Bush indicated Friday that he is considering such a waiver as reports of food shortages mount in the Soviet Union, and this recommendation would make it easier for him to proceed.

Last June 13, the council recommended a one-year waiver “if the President receives appropriate assurance from Soviet authorities of significant progress” toward a more liberal Moscow emigration law.

However, the council’s executive committee voted Monday to drop the condition even though a new emigration bill appears to have stalled in the Soviet Union’s new democratic legislature. The council said that changes in practice are enough to justify the move, despite the failure to write the relaxation into law.

Shoshana S. Cardin, the council’s president, said: “While truly free emigration does not yet exist in the Soviet Union. . . , we believe that waiver of the (1974 law) at this time will be consistent with the objectives” of the organization.

She said that the council will continue to monitor Soviet practices and that it will urge authorities in Moscow “to bring their domestic laws . . . into full compliance with their international obligations.”

In 1974, Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union amounted to only about 20,000 people a year. So far this year, more than 150,000 Soviet Jews have left the country, most of them moving to Israel. The number is expected to be even higher next year.

The late Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.), primary sponsor of the 1974 legislation, said at the time that its provisions should be waived if the emigration level reached 60,000 a year.

If Bush grants the waiver, as is expected, it would reduce the tariffs on Soviet goods to the lowest levels that apply to any U.S. trading partner. Current tariffs are so high that almost no Soviet goods, aside from vodka and caviar, are sold in the United States.

Soviet authorities have long chaffed at the restrictions. A U.S.-Soviet trade treaty, signed by Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev during their summit meeting this year in Washington, cannot take effect until Moscow is granted most-favored-nation trade status.