US Congress House of Representatives trade subcommittee has set about hearing the question of excluding Armenia and other eight CIS countries from the list of the countries on which the Jackson-Vanik amendment spreads. The amendment passed in 1974 provides for trade limiting sanctions against the countries, in which human rights in official Washington’s opinion are abused. After the collapse of the USSR the sanctions spread on the CIS states. Kirgizstan and Georgia were excluded from the list of the countries concerned by the amendment last year. As stated by human rights advocate Tom Lantos at the congressional hearings the amendment «played its part in destroying «the iron curtain» set by the Soviet regime.» But in his words, it lost sense after ending «the Cold War». The initiative of waiving sanctions from CIS countries belongs to George W. Bush.
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