Clinton Grants Vietnam a Trade Waiver
President Clinton granted Vietnam a waiver Wednesday of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which imposed trade restrictions on Communist governments as a penalty for limiting emigration.
With the waiver, Vietnam becomes eligible to participate in U.S. export promotion and investment support programs, including those of the Export-Import Bank. This is expected to help American companies in Vietnam compete more effectively there.
Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary, said more than 480,000 Vietnamese have legally entered the U.S. since 1979. Recently, Vietnam has more readily permitted Vietnamese repatriated from elsewhere in Southeast Asia to settle in the U.S., he said.
“Granting this waiver represents the best way we can encourage a continuation of that kind of progress,” McCurry told reporters.
The U.S. lifted its trade embargo in 1994 and resumed ties with Hanoi in 1995.
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