Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

160. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Romania¹

198748.

Washington, June 27, 1987, 0112Z

SUBJECT

• Gavrilescu/Simons: Senate MFN Vote.

1. Confidential—Entire text.

2. Ambassador Gavrilescu came in to see DAS Simons shortly after the June 26 Senate adoption of the Armstrong/Dodd amendment to the Trade Bill suspending Romania’s MFN status for six months.² He was seeking Simons’ assessment of the situation.

3. Simons expressed our disappointment over the Senate’s action, noting that we had made clear our opposition to moves in both Houses³ which would undercut the Jackson-Vanik process. He said we will be studying the differences between the amendments adopted by the two Houses to see whether a House-Senate conference would need to look again at the MFN issue. He also pointed out that Senator Armstrong had told the Senate that his amendment provided for “automatic”reinstitution of MFN at the end of the six-month suspension period.⁴ Simons said that this did not appear to be the case, and that this might lead some Senators to seek reconsideration of the amendment. In any case, Simons said, there was a long way to go before a Trade Bill was enacted into law.⁵

4. Simons also noted that we were not certain at this point how the trade legislation would affect the President’s MFN renewal determination under the Jackson-Vanik process. There were two separate tracks, and the Jackson-Vanik track provided that the President’s determination remained in effect until both Houses passed motions of disapproval.

5. Simons’ main message, which he stressed to Gavrilescu, was that the GOR should not react to the Senate’s move in an emotional or hasty manner, or take any ill-advised actions. Rather, he said, the GOR should continue to address and improve its record on human rights issues, which would have a favorable impact in this country. He reminded Gavrilescu that we had told him before that the GOR’s tactics—saving up its positive actions and then parceling them out at the last minute, and also trying to compensate for shortcomings in performance with a flurry of visitors and delegations to the U.S.—were widely perceived as being very cynical, and that this had an impact on the Senate vote.

6. Gavrilescu spoke emotionally of the “cynicism” and anti-Romania “hysteria” in the Senate—he had seen Senators Armstrong and Trible⁶ in the last few days and professed to be shocked at their language—but said the GOR would be patient and wait to see how the process evolves. Simons welcomed the conclusion, but disagreed with the analysis; Senators voting for suspension might not be familiar with all the relevant considerations, but in his view were generally sincere in their concerns about the human rights situation in Romania.

Shultz

1. Source: Reagan Library, Rudolf Perina Files, Subject File, Romania—Bilateral 1987 (2). Confidential; Immediate.
2. The Armstrong Amendment (S. Amdt. 323) to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Bill (S. 1420) suspended Romania’s MFN status for 6 months due to human rights abuses. The President could reinstate MFN status if he determined that the human rights situation had improved.
3. Reference is to the adoption of the Wolf Amendment in the House. See footnote 8, Document 151.
4. An unknown hand underlined this sentence.
5. An unknown hand underlined “Simons said, there was a long way to go before a trade bill was enacted into law.”
6. Paul S. Trible, Jr. (R–Virginia).