Kazakhstan Seeks Permanent Normal Trade Status with U.S.
- Kazakhstan is seeking permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status with the United States to boost economic ties.
- The Jackson-Vanik amendment, a Cold War-era law, requires annual reviews for Kazakhstan to maintain current trade benefits.
- The Biden Administration, experts, and Kazakh officials agree that lifting the Jackson-Vanik restrictions would benefit both countries.
The Biden Administration and Kazakhstan are both eager to boost mutual trade and investment. But an antiquated vestige of the Cold War known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment remains an impediment to stronger US-Kazakh economic ties.
Kazakhstan is a keen supporter of a US initiative launched earlier this year known as the B5+1 process, under which Central Asian states strive to lower trade barriers to attract higher levels of Western investment. At the same time, Kazakh officials complain that the ability to trade with the United States is clouded by Kazakhstan’s Jackson-Vanik status.
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The amendment was adopted in a bygone era to address bygone geopolitical issues, designed to give the United States leverage in its dealings with the formerly communist countries of Central Europe and Eurasia by conditioning trade relations on a willingness to permit the freedom of movement and emigration. In passing the measure in 1974, congress gave the president the authority to waive Jackson-Vanik restrictions for any given country on a yearly basis. Removing a country permanently from the Jackson-Vanik list requires an act of Congress.
Since the collapse of communism, Congress has scrapped Jackson-Vanik restrictions for most formerly communist nations, granting them permanent normal trade relations status (PNTR). Five formerly Soviet republics – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – remain subject to Jackson-Vanik and require annual reviews to be exempted from the amendment’s provisions. Today, Jackson-Vanik restrictions are imposed only on four states: Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Russia.