REPEAL OF JACKSON-VANIK AMENDMENT TO OPEN PROSPECTS TO ARMENIAN EXPORTERS

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated that the expected repeal of Jackson-Vanik Amendment concerning Armenia would become an impulse for developing mutually profitable cooperation between Yerevan and Washington in the sphere of trade. Let us remind that sanctions initiated against the Soviet Union by Congressmen Jackson and Venik in 1974 provided for limitation of Soviet export to the U.S.A. After the collapse of the USSR the sanctions applied to all CIS countries. Discussion of the necessity to cancel the Jackson-Vanik amendment concerning Armenia started in Congress at the beginning of January. Repeal of the sanction will exempt Armenian exporters from high customs, which will make the Armenian industrial and agricultural production more competitive. Vartan Oskanian noted that the importance of abolition of Jackson-Vanik Amendment increased when one took into consideration the fact that the question of Armenia's entry into WTO would be decided soon.