#4 - JRL 7070
ANTI-RUSSIAN JACKSON-VANIK AMENDMENT TO GO SOON
MOSCOW, February 19, 2003. /From RIA Novosti correspondent/. Tom Lantos, member of the House of Representatives committee on international affairs of the US Congress, is confident that the Jackson-Vanik amendment would be repealed in the near future. This is the view the American Congressman expressed on Wednesday at a news conference during his Moscow visit.
Lantos said that it was he personally who had initiated in American Congress a bill to abolish the amendment, which discriminates against Russia as a US trading partner. "I strongly believe that my Senate colleagues will adopt my bill," noted Lantos.
He expressed confidence that such obstacles in trade and economic relations between Russia and the US as Jackson-Vanik would shortly disappear.
Speaking of a climate in Russian-American relations in general, Lantos pointed to the "incredible amount of goodwill in US Congress towards Russia". "We view Russia as one of our basic partners both in external policy and in international economic relations," the American Congressman assured his audience.
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