News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Jackson Vanik Statement

Date: July 26, 2000

Statement by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
H.J. Res. 99 "Disapproval of the Jackson-Vanik Waiver for Vietnam"
July 26, 2000

Mr. Chairman: It has been two years since President Clinton issued the first Jackson-Vanik waiver for Vietnam. Each year we have been assured by the Administration and by our ambassador to Hanoi that this action would lead to greater political openness and prosperity for the Vietnamese people, and a better economic climate for American investors. Unfortunately, the exact opposite has happened.

As the Washington Post stated on May 3, "Vietnam remains a one party state ... rampant corruption retards foreign investment and ... the Communist Party fears more openness to the outside world could bring in more political heterodoxy -- for which the party shows ZERO tolerance." And a recent Human Rights Watch report links the ongoing persecution of dissidents and religious believers in Vietnam to the pervasive economic and political corruption. There is no free press -- all information is controlled by the state. Radio Free Asia broadcasts are routinely jammed.

A June 2000 poll of international businessmen by the respected Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Group in Hong Kong, rated Vietnam among the three worst legal systems in Asia. Official Vietnamese data shows that foreign investment dropped by 75% during the past year and the country's annual growth rate of around 4 percent has fallen to half of what is was when President Clinton normalized political and economic relations with Hanoi. I fully agree with the Wall Street Journal's assessment that, "The biggest barrier to growth in Vietnam is -- as it always has been -- the Communist Party itself. Until the party sees its way to limiting its own power. Vietnam will be saddled with widespread corruption and slow economic growth."

Another troubling development, based on numerous reports by Western diplomats is that Hanoi has sent large numbers of troops into Laos to defend the corrupt Pathet Lao regime from its internal opponents. This military intervention to prop up a neighboring communist regime will further deplete Vietnam's economy.

The repeated promises by Hanoi of economic reform, have been no more credible than their pledges in the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement that communist violence against the people of South Vietnam would end and that peaceful elections rather than bombs would resolve the war. There is still not even the slightest hint that free and fair elections will be conducted in Vietnam. In that repressive environment, it is hardly surprising that foreign investors and businesses are bailing out.

As this panel is aware, the Jackson-Vanik provision primarily addresses the issue of freedom of emigration for people who fear or have experienced persecution. The Vietnamese Exit Permit system for immigration -- including for long time reeducation camp survivors, Amer-Asians, montagnards and other people of interest to America -- remains rife with corruption. Many Vietnamese on the U.S. emigration list have not been able to come to the United States because they could not afford to pay the bribe price.

Contrary to claims of progress in the POW/MIA issue, Hanoi has not released the records of all prisons where Americans were held during the war, including the facility that held Ambassador Peterson. In contrast, there are still 400 cases of POW/MIAs that the Defense Intelligence Agency has identified as last-known-alive or known to have perished under communist Vietnamese control. The Vietnamese government has not provided the necessary information to honestly resolve any of these cases. My joint resolution, disapproving the President's waiver for the corrupt Vietnamese dictatorship, does not intend to isolate Vietnam nor to stop U.S. companies from doing business there. It simply prevents Communist Vietnam from enjoying a trade status that enables American businessmen to make increasingly risky investments with loan guarantees and subsidies provided by U.S. taxpayers.

If private banks or insurance companies will not back-up or insure private business ventures in Vietnam, American taxpayers should not be asked to do so. Rampant corruption, mismanagement, as well as abuses in the emigration program, the lack of free trade unions, the suppression of free expression and the persecution of dissidents and religious believers, are valid reasons to oppose the Jackson-Vanik waiver for Vietnam.

Mr. Chairman, we do no favors for the Vietnamese people or American investors by once again reflexively supporting the President's bogus Jackson-Vanik waiver. I propose that we give the Communist dictators of Vietnam a strong message from the U.S. Congress that corruption, mismanagement and repression will no longer be tolerated. By supporting my legislation, we can put the Vietnamese leaders on probation for the period of one year. If they enact the reforms that they have promised, begin developing a truly credible judicial system, end the corruption in the emigration program and take their jack-boots -- or Ho Chi Minh sandals -- off of the faces of the Vietnamese people, I will support approving the waiver next year.

The Vietnamese Communists have manipulated American generosity to further impoverish and repress their people. I ask my colleagues to support my resolution.