Senate Republicans urge closer look at Russia's practices before normalizing trade relations

Eight Senate Republicans are urging lawmakers to address a broad range of concerns with Russia as Congress looks to move forward on normalizing trade relations.

The Senate Finance Committee members sent a letter on Tuesday urging panel Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to examine concerns such as Russian barriers to U.S. exports, theft of intellectual property, public protests surrounding Vladimir Putin's election and Moscow's continued support of the Assad regime in Syria.  

"We believe it will be necessary to satisfactorily address these and other issues if Congress is to successfully navigate a path toward granting permanent normal trade relations to Russia,” the Senators wrote. 

"We hope you will work with us as we consider legislative options to address remaining concerns."

The letter, spearheaded by panel ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), was signed by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Russia will join the World Trade Organization about a month after an expected July 4 vote after 18 years of lobbying for membership. 

Congress can't stop Russia's membership and must act before the August recess to repeal the now obsolete Jackson-Vanik amendment, a 37-year-old provision designed to put pressure on communist nations for human-rights abuses and emigration policies. 

Without a repeal, U.S. businesses won't be able to take advantage of lower tariffs and other benefits, including the ability to file trade cases against Moscow.

Earlier Tuesday, Baucus introduced a bipartisan measure to repeal Jackson-Vanik and extend Permanent normal trade relations to Russia and, at the same time, announced in a letter that he will back a plan to pair that legislation with the so-called Magnitsky bill on the move in the House and the Senate that would freeze assets and deny U.S. visas to Russian officials linked to human-rights abuses. 

Ahead of the unveiling of that measure, the Business Roundtable (BRT) said it was expecting lawmakers to move the trade and human-rights bills on separate tracks. 

Business groups, including BRT and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are ramping up their efforts to get Congress to pass a bill before time runs out. 

John Engler, BRT's president, said Tuesday he is confident Congress will get a bill done by the end of July. 

Linking the two bills could complicate passage before Russia is granted full rights in early August unless the House and Senate can move identical human-rights language or quickly come to resolution in a conference, an issue Baucus raised in the letter.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a former U.S. trade representative, said Tuesday that he backs the human-rights legislation and would not object to linking the measures, saying the "key to me is to get PNTR passed." 

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who backs passage of the linked bills and is a co-sponsor of the PNTR bill, stressed that lawmakers are facing a short deadline to get a bill done and the House and Senate need to work out the language to ensure the measure moves before the deadline. 

"I think there's a broad consensus on both sides of the aisle that the human rights issues need to be addressed," Thune said. 

"We've got a fairly short clock to work with and will do everything we can do address members concerns and not derail PNTR and put American exporters at a real disadvantage," he said. 

Thune said that while he could argue that the Magnitsky legislation could be done independently, it could be "unrealistic" in the slow-moving Senate.

"We want to move forward with this because there's sensitivity in regards to timing," Thune said. 

"If we haven't dealt with this issue we may not be at the table when it comes to trade opportunities for American exporters," he said. 

"It's all a downside to us if we don't act."