Bipartisan legislation backed by President Biden that would strip Russia of its most-favored-nation trade status is stalled in the Senate over concerns from GOP senators.
The Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act passed the House 424 to 8 earlier this month, but has been held up in the Senate over disagreements on sanctions language and a proposal to ease the transfer of weapons to Ukraine.
GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky put a hold on the legislation over language in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Reauthorization Act, which is included in the larger bill. Mr. Paul said the language as written could allow a U.S. president to too broadly interpret what constitutes a human-rights violation.
On Wednesday, there appeared to be a breakthrough when Mr. Paul said that he would remove his hold after seeing the final version of the language, which he said included a specific definition of human-rights abuses that would trigger sanctions.
The definition will “prevent the unintended result of allowing the sanctioning of individuals who strongly disagree with the assertion that various policies such as free housing, free healthcare, free abortions and free internet are somehow human rights that could be abused,” he said.
However, on Thursday both parties said the deal wasn’t finalized and issues remained, but senators didn’t specify what the issues were.
“We’re trying to figure this out,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), who worked with the Magnitsky Act co-sponsor Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) to address Mr. Paul’s concerns.
Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) said Thursday he was also trying to get the legislation amended to include a lend-lease program that would clear the way for the U.S. to send weapons to Ukraine and be repaid later, Politico reported. A representative for Mr. Cornyn didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.
The overall bill would strip Russia and Belarus—a country closely aligned with Russia that has been used as a staging ground for its Ukraine invasion—of their most-favored-nation trade status, a step that would result in higher tariff rates on some imports from the countries.
To maximize the pressure on Russia and Belarus, the bill would give Mr. Biden the authority to order additional increases in import duties for certain products, pushing them above the rates that would result from simply ending the most-favored-nation status. While the bill doesn’t specify those items, candidates would include nonenergy products such as aluminum, wood and wood veneer products, and chemicals including fertilizer, according to Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), a co-sponsor of the bill.
If the two countries halted the invasion, the legislation would allow Mr. Biden to bring back normal trade relations, but Congress could overrule the president.
