Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 105 Part 2.djvu/283

 PUBLIC LAW 102-182—DEC. 4, 1991 105 STAT. 1235 TITLE I—EXTENSION OF NONDISCRIM- pu^2434 INATORY TREATMENT TO ESTONIA, LATVIA, AND LITHUANIA. SEC. 101. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) The Government of the United States extended full diplomatic recognition to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1922. (2) The Government of the United States entered into agreements extending most-favored-nation treajtment with the Government of Estonia on August 1, 1925, the Government! of Latvia on April 30, 1926, and the Government of Lithuania on July 10, 1926. (3) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics incorporated Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania involuntarily into the Union as a result of a secret protocol to a German-Soviet agreement in 1939 which assigned those three states to the Soviet sphere of influence; and the Government of the United States has at no time recognized the forcible incorporation of those states into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (4) The Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951 required the President to suspend, withdraw, or prevent the application of trade benefits, including most-favored-nation treatment, to countries under the domination or control of the world Communist movement. (5) In 1951, responsible representatives of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania stated that they did not object to the imposition of "such controls as the Government of the United States may consider to be appropriate" to the products of those countries, for such time as those countries remained under Soviet domination or control. (6) In 1990, the democratically elected governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared the restoration of their independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (7) The Government of the United States established diplomatic relations with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on September 2, 1991, and on September 6, 1991, the State Council of the transitional government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, thereby ending the involuntary incorporation of those countries into, and the domination of those countries by, the Soviet Union. (8) Immediate action should be taken to remove the impediments, imposed in response to the circumstances referred to in paragraph (5), in United States trade laws to the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment (most-favored-nation treatment) to the products of those countries. (9) As a consequence of establishment of United States diplomatic relations with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, these independent countries are eligible to receive the benefits of the Generalized System of Preferences provided for in title V of the Trade Act of 1974. note.

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