Ron Kirk: “Let me state unequivocally that the deal on the table is insufficient and unbalanced from the perspective of Congress.”

The most important distinction between this and China, Senator, is that, in the case of Russia, we insisted that they put in place their laws to implement the WTO rules before we would allow them to accede to the WTO.

If we don't repeal Jackson-Vanik, to the degree that Russia is opening up liberalizing its services market, investment market, we lose all of the benefits of that.

I respectfully ask this committee to move forward quickly with legislation to terminate Jackson-Vanik and empower the President to extend PNTR to Russia.

Let's not give Russia that 10-year liberal period that China--China agreed that they would join the GPA within 10 years.