Kazakhstani officials contend that US action to lift Jackson-Vanik restrictions on Astana can catalyse expanded bilateral trade, including in the critical minerals sector.

Visiting Washington on a mid-October trade promotion tour, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin took time to lobby members of the US Congress to permanently remove the Central Asian nation from the Jackson-Vanik list.

Dating back to the Cold War, the Jackson-Vanik amendment conditioned US trade with formerly communist countries on their willingness to permit the freedom of movement and emigration. The president has the authority to waive Jackson-Vanik restrictions for any given country on a yearly basis, but lifting the constraints permanently requires an act of Congress. 

Congress has scrapped Jackson-Vanik for most formerly communist nations, granting them permanent normal trade relations status (PNTR). But five formerly Soviet republics – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – still are subject to annual review and/or a presidential waiver.

Kazakhstani officials maintain that Jackson-Vanik is an unnecessary hindrance at a time when the Trump administration has expressed keen intent in expanding trade in a variety of areas. Zhumangarin voiced hope for the “speedy resolution of this issue,” according to an official statement released after his meeting with US representatives.

Zhumangarin also held meetings with a variety of US business leaders, highlighting the critical minerals sector, along with “railway engineering, automobile construction, the production of fertilizers and processing of solid household waste” as potential “points of growth” for bilateral trade. He additionally told US business executives that Kazakhstan intended to undertake projects worth $100bn to expand “energy and communal infrastructure.”

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.