From the Office of Senator Kerry

Thursday, June 17, 1999

Washington, DC - Senator John F. Kerry today testified before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade to support the renewal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment for Vietnam:

"I supported the President's decision last year to renew the waiver, and I support his decision this year to extend the renewal. I continue to believe that overturning the waiver would have serious negative consequences for our bilateral relations with Vietnam and our larger interests in Southeast Asia.

Our interests in promoting stability in this often volatile region dictate that we have an active presence and effective working relationships with all of the countries including Vietnam.

Those who oppose the Jackson-Vanik waiver want to turn the clock back to the policy that we had in place for some 20 years after the war -- a policy of denial. That policy was a complete failure and the history of the POW/MIA issue clearly demonstrates this point. Progress on the POW/MIA issue came only when we began to engage the Vietnamese and to recognize that the Vietnamese needed and wanted a relationship with the United States.

I am convinced that we made progress on this issue because of engagement and cooperation, not isolation or containment. If we want to promote human rights and political change in Vietnam, we need to expand our contacts, not contract them, through all the tools at our disposal -- trade, aid, exchange programs, participation in ASEAN and other regional and international institutions.

The decision to treat Vietnam as a country, rather than a war, was made when we normalized diplomatic relations in 1995. We cannot and should not turn the clock back now. The President made the right decision when he decided to extend the waiver for another year. Congress should let that decision stand."

A decorated Vietnam veteran, Kerry is Ranking Member of the Senate's Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.