Congress nears agreement to revoke Russia’s trade status

Lawmakers are on the brink of an agreement for legislation to revoke normal trade relations with Russia that could pass the House this week, the latest move in a series of congressional efforts to hobble the Russian economy in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Removing Russia’s “most-favored-nation” trade status would enable the U.S. to impose higher tariffs on Russian goods, and take other actions. The House could act on the bill as soon as Thursday, according to a person familiar with the talks who requested anonymity.

The bill will also include an expansion of the the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the person said. That would allow the Biden administration to impose further sanctions on Russian officials for human rights violations.

The House included Magnitsky language in legislation to ban Russian oil imports that passed the chamber last week. However, attaching it to the trade status legislation could move it through the Senate and to President Joe Biden’s desk sooner, though no timetable has been set. Some senators have said the oil ban legislation isn’t needed because Biden has already acted to block Russian crude imports.

Biden last week announced the U.S., along with other G-7 and European Union countries, would revoke the status in response to the invasion of Ukraine, putting Russia in the same category as other pariah states including North Korea and Cuba. Doing so in the U.S. requires legislation.

The negotiations were briefly stalled in the House while Democrats and Republicans were divided over how much power Biden should have to re-instate Russia’s trade status and what Russia would have to do to regain that standing, according to lawmakers involved in the talks.

Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said both parties and the White House have reached a compromise that allows for both Congress and the president to be involved in re-establishing a trade relationship with Russia.

“The conditions that we’ve landed on are very strong and give the president the ability to work with the free and independent government of Ukraine in assessing Russia’s behavior, but it also retains Congress’s ability through a disapproval resolution to address the issue if needed,” Brady said on a call with reporters Wednesday.

Brady said the text of the bill will likely be released soon.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Wednesday that he remained hopeful that the legislation could be finished this week, despite some of the holdups in the talks.