164. Editorial Note
On March 27, 1978, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski forwarded a memorandum to President Jimmy Carter recommending that he sign the necessary documents for waiving the Jackson-Vanik Amendment requirements and submitting the Hungarian trade agreement to Congress. (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Europe, USSR, and East/West, Larrabee Subject Chron, Box 64, [Eastern Europe]: 12/78–12/80) Carter signed the documents on April 7. (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 50, Presidential Determinations: 6/77–4/78)
On April 14, the U.S. House of Representatives Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on the Hungarian trade agreement. Telegram 96847 to Budapest, April 15, informed U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Philip Kaiser that “congressional questioning was wide and ranging, but not contentious” and generally supportive of the agreement. Administration spokesmen included Counselor of the Department of State Matthew Nimetz, Kaiser, and William Barraclough, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Policy. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780162–0145) The House Ways and Means Committee approved the agreement on April 27 and sent it to the full House for a vote. (Telegram 108345 to Budapest, April 27; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780181–0537) The Subcommittee [Page 493] on International Trade of the Senate Finance Committee took up the matter on May 9 and approved the agreement on June 20. (Telegram 156979 to Budapest, June 21; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780257–0839) The Senate adopted the measure on June 27. (Telegram 164324 to Budapest, June 28; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780267–1010) Following an exchange of notes between the United States and Hungary, the Agreement of Trade Relations Between the United States of America and the Hungarian People’s Republic entered into force on July 7, 1978. (29 UST 2711)