Who is Jackson Venik?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Answering the question of who Jackson Venik is, you must immediately say that this is not one person. These names have been in history since 1974. Then the American Congress adopted the famous Jackson-Venick Amendment. The document was sponsored by a couple of local senators whose names gave the bill its name.

Charles Venik

This man was a well-known figure among American politicians of his time. Charles represented Ohio for the Democratic Party.

Venik became most famous after the adoption of the notorious amendment, in which he co-authored. In the future, he actively promoted it.

Henry Jackson

Among the American politicians of the 70s of the last century, this politician is among the most prominent. Throughout his career, Jackson represented Washington State on behalf of the Democratic Party. At certain stages of his life, he ran for president.

Henry got into Congress early, becoming a member already in 1941. But he gained the greatest fame during the adoption and promotion of the sensational amendment, of which he was a co-author. Thus, answering the question of who Jackson Venik is, it must be said that these are two different people who spokeco-sponsors of one bill.

Political views

Throughout his career, the politician sought to maintain the civil rights and freedoms of the people, opposed detente. In addition, he was one of the most active participants in the anti-Soviet struggle going on in those years.

Many of his views formed the basis of political neoconservatism, whose adherents have made adjustments to US actions in the international arena for several decades.

Adoption of amendment

At the height of the Cold War period between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1974, Jackson-Venik sanctions were adopted in America. They assumed the establishment of increased customs duties or even the establishment of restrictions on the export and import of goods of certain countries of the world, which establish obstacles for the emigration of their citizens. Among others, the Soviet Union fell under their influence.

Background

The reasons for the adoption of the Jackson-Venik act were formed several years before the document was approved by Congress. But the main impetus was the decree of the USSR, issued at the end of the summer of 1972.

Its essence boiled down to the fact that citizens of the country who decided to go abroad on a permanent basis are obliged to fully reimburse the state for the money that the country spent on their professional training as specialists.

The highest rates were set for people who managed to get university degrees. For them, the cost of emigrationwas about 12,000 rubles - then it was a very significant amount that citizens did not have.

In the country, this decision was made in order to stop the so-called "brain drain" abroad. This was necessary in those years to slow down the emigration of people belonging to the category of the “intellectual elite” of the country.

Against this background, accusations began against the country's leadership, both from foreign governments and some citizens of the USSR, in particular those who at that time were already Nobel Prize winners. The main complaint was that the document violates the basic rights of people.

The huge cash collection itself was canceled soon. But some restrictions continued to apply for Soviet citizens who decided to emigrate. Their final cancellation occurred much later, already in the perestroika period.

In 1974, the United States passed the Broom Jackson Act, also known as the Trade Ordinance. He assumed a number of restrictions in the sphere of commodity-money relations between America and countries that created obstacles to the realization of the basic rights of people, including free emigration.

That is, the Soviet Union was not directly present in the text of the legislative act. But first of all, it was developed with the aim of putting pressure on him, and then on other states.

The essence of the amendment

The idea of Vanik and Jackson was that the states that count on full-fledged relations in the field of trade withThe United States of America do not have the right to restrict the desire of its citizens to emigrate, regardless of specific leverage.

These congressmen originally proposed such an instruction in order to have their own leverage on the countries that are part of the communist bloc.

The Jackson-Vanik Act is rightfully considered a very resonant document in US history. It was formalized as a regular amendment to the already existing law on trade, where it is recorded under paragraph 402. Its main essence was to create obstacles for those states that seek to limit the process of voluntary emigration of their citizens by one method or another.

Among the measures of pressure was a ban on the provision of cash loans to these countries, as well as the refusal of any kind of guarantees. In addition, all goods and products imported from them into the United States were subject to additional large taxes and other fees. This was a significant lever of pressure, especially on small states.

Which countries does the amendment apply to?

The law applied to those states that imposed taxes or large fees for citizens who decided to change their country of residence. In addition, sanctions were imposed on countries that created obstacles or set excessive prices for paperwork required for the emigration process.

First of all, the Venik-Jackson law applied to the USSR, after which the same sanctions fell oncountries that were part of the union. He also acted on Hungary and China, the GDR, Mongolia, Cambodia, Romania, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia. Over the years, the United States, due to changes in the situation in the world, suspended the document in relation to certain countries, including the Soviet Union. But it was only a temporary measure - no one was going to cancel the amendment. And as we can see, she is still well-known.

The validity of the document from Jackson and Venik officially began in January 1975. From that moment on, the favorable regime for trade relations was terminated for the Soviet Union - a tenfold amount of customs duties was established for all goods imported into the country from the territory of the USSR.

The peculiarity of the amendment is that the incumbent president of the country can assign or cancel restrictions on specific states of "violators". The American Congress approved just such a textual version proposed by Venik and Jackson. Restrictions at the direction of the President were suspended for a year.

Periodically, the heads of America have exercised the right to restrict the operation of the law. First, it affected China and a number of other states, after the 1990s, its effect was limited to the Soviet Union and its former member countries, which had never been done before.

Over time, the number of countries that fell under the adopted addition to the law on trade, regularly decreased. This happened because most states began to join the ranksWorld Trade Organization.

Consequences

The law proposed by Jackson and Venik had a huge impact on the political life in the world. During the first decades after its adoption, several hundred thousand people moved to the United States, including from the territory of the countries of the Soviet space.

After the collapse of the USSR, that is, in the last two decades, the document has already lost its original purpose and essence in relation to this country, including Russia, which acted as its successor.

Already by the beginning of the 1990s, the leadership of the Union abolished the need to process all kinds of documents in order to obtain permission to move out of the country and the corresponding visas. This gave complete freedom to the emigration process.

Modern Echoes

US Presidents, since 1989, have annually canceled the effect of the Venik and Jackson amendment in relation to Russia. After a few more years, President Clinton provided guarantees that the favorable trade regime between the Russian Federation and the United States of America would be extended automatically in the future. Against this background, the original document has completely lost its significance and necessity.

Later, in the spring of 2006, the document of Jackson and Venik ceased to apply to Ukraine. Officially, this is explained by a number of reforms that took place in the country the day before under the leadership of President Yushchenko and his government.

Finally, all restrictions associated with this act were lifted for Russia only at the end2012. But the law repealing the initial amendment implies new sanctions that are still in effect. The so-called “Magnitsky list” was formed in the document. On its basis, a number of restrictions on the financial and visa plan are assumed in relation to the citizens of Russia listed in it. The list includes those Russians who, according to the American leadership, are related to the death of Magnitsky.

Despite the fact that contemporaries know little about the amendment adopted in the seventies and even occasionally wonder who Jackson Venik is, the amendment has not been canceled at the moment. Formally, it continues to apply to a number of countries belonging to the post-Soviet space, although in fact temporary restrictions are also extended annually for them.

Cancellation question

The only countries today for which full-fledged trade relations with the United States are still impossible are Cuba, as well as North Korea.

Over the past decade, the issue of repealing this amendment has been raised in the US Congress repeatedly. But every time the senators found certain obstacles of an economic, political or commercial nature, so as not to completely cancel it. At the moment, Russia and the United States are connected by an impressive trade turnover, which has been growing over the years.