MOSCOW, April 4 (Itar-Tass) ——A problem of the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment will be put on the agenda of the U.S. Congress until summer, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Mikhail Margelov declared after a round- table meeting on Wednesday which focused on the repeal of the Jackson- Vanik law in the context of Russia's accession to WTO.
Judging by the information which comes from our colleagues in "U.S. Senate - Federation Council" joint working group, this problem will come up at the U.S. Senate until simmer, Margelov said. " A process of "synchronizing the clocks and evaluating the forces" is going on. It is important for the Barack Obama administration to know how many votes they can count on in the Senate so as to make headway on this problem, Margelov said.
For the first time since the end of the Cold War the U.S. administration has been lobbying the repeal of the Jackson- Vanik Amendment on the Capitol Hill in earnest and very professionally, Margelov said. The U.S. business community has joined the process, which shows that the number of people ready to recognize the present-day political realities has been growing, Margelov stressed.
The repeal of the Amendment is the matter of the U.S. home politics, Margelov said. Russia is interested in that from the point of view that the repeal might be another political signal to Russia that we are ousting the remnants of the Cold War from our political realities and that the reset in bilateral relations is not only a nice word, but it acquires a practical meaning, the MP said.