March 1998 President Clinton waived the Jackson-Vanik provisions of the Trade Act of 1974 for Vietnam on the premise that the waiver would substantially promote free and open emigration in Vietnam. The statutory definition of free and open emigration is that no citizen should be denied the right or opportunity to emigrate, and that no citizen should be made to pay more than a nominal fee on emigration or on the visas or other documents required for emigration.
The 1998 waiver has not substantially promoted free and open emigration as expected by the President. In fact, the situation with emigration has worsened. The amount of bribes demanded by Vietnamese authorities in exchange for access to US refugee programs has skyrocketed over the past 12 months. An average emigrant now must pay $1,000 in bribes on the average for access to these programs--more than 3 times the average annual salary of a Vietnamese worker. In a number of instances, eligible refugees have been demanded tens of thousand US dollars for exit permission. As these refugees have such money, they have been forced to leave their wives and children behind and take substitutes assigned to them by the authorities; these substitutes have agreed to pay the bribes to these same authorities.
Corruption has excluded thousands of victims of persecution from US refugee programs specifically designed for them. At a meeting with Vietnamese-American community leaders and congressional staffers in 1997, Ambassador to Vietnam Douglas "Pete" Peterson estimated that some 20,000 potential refugees had been excluded. This situation has not changed since the last waiver: none of these potential refugees has gained access to the program. On February 16, 1999 Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez wrote to Ambassador Peterson to remind him of his promise to address this most blatant violation of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. No action has been taken.
By rewarding Vietnam regardless of its lack of cooperation, its serious abuses of human rights, and its rampantly corrupt government, our Administration sends the wrong message to the Vietnamese leaders. Over the past 12 months Vietnam has regressed on many fronts, including labor rights, religious freedom, freedom of the press, copyright...
Starting this year foreign firms conducting businesses in Vietnam are no longer allowed to hire Vietnamese employees directly but must go through the government's Employment Service Organizations. This practice gives rise to graft and excludes victims of persecution from the only potential source of employment available to them. (Source: Vietnam to tighten grip on jobs at foreign firms, Reuters, Nov. 6, 1998)
Last April the government issued a new decree on religion instituting additional restrictions on religious activities. This decree permanently appropriates religious properties confiscated from the different Churches, establishes a government agency to determine which religion is authorized, and specifies religious functions needing pre-approval by the Prime Minister. (Source: New Vietnam religion decree sets state controls, Reuters, Apr. 21, 1999)
German Ambassador to Vietnam Wolfgang Erck, representing the European Union, recently observed that "[Vietnam's] reform policy has been slowed down and economic policy is less courageous than it was at the beginning of the '90s... We have the impression there is less tolerance now, more limitations for the press (and) religious communities, and we have concerns over sectors... (such as) political prisoners." (Source: "EU says aid to Vietnam depends on reforms," Reuters, June 10, 1999.)
Following a one-year study, the General Accounting Office has concluded in its report to the US Congress that economic data provided by Vietnam are often unreliable for lack of transparency in the methodology employed for data collection and reporting. In many areas, there is total absence of data. For example, the International Monetary Fund has reported that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) make up 40 percent of Vietnam's GDP. The government releases practically no information on these SOEs and their true financial conditions. (Source: Vietnam Economic Data: Assessment of Availability and Quality, GAO, June 1999)
In its November 1998 report, the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) noted that Asia's economic crisis has resulted in greater transparency for most Asian economies. Vietnam, however, remains far in the negative end of the spectrum: scoring 8.50, where 0 is the best possible score and 10 the worst. (Source: Asia crisis results in greater transparency-PERC, 05:57 a.m. Nov. 30, 1998 Eastern)
From its recent internal review of government agencies, Vietnam's Ministry of Finance revealed that 5.8 billion dollars, or one third of the country's total civil service assets, are unaccounted for. Most of the money went into luxury items for high-ranking officials. (Source: Vietnam Sets Stage for New Government Purge, Stratfor's Global Intelligence Update, May 25, 1999)
To silence popular criticisms against such high-level corruption, last month the communist official media announced the politburo's order barring communists from speaking out publicly against the party or inciting others to do so. (Source: "Vietnam clamps down on free speech," Associated Press, June 7, 1999)
According to Business Software Alliance and the Software & Information Industry Association, 38% of all software applications installed in 1998 were pirated, with Vietnam posting the highest piracy rate of 97 percent, followed by China's 95 percent, and Indonesia's 92 percent. (Source: Two-fifths of installed software pirated-survey, Reuters, 09:57 a.m. Jun. 07, 1999)
In fact, economic privileges unconditionally bestowed on Hanoi might have slowed the much economic reforms. Edouard Wattez, the United Nations Development Program representative in Hanoi, noted that economic reforms would have proceeded faster without the billions of dollars in international aid to Vietnam from the international community. "In some respects, the past five years might appear to have been rather a period of reform on paper, often without effective and systematic implementation," he said at a forum in Ha Noi on November 25. Of the $5 billion already disbursed, a mere 5.5 per cent is going for basic social services to Vietnamese citizens. (Source: Cash handouts slow economic reform process, South China Morning Post, Nov. 25, 1998)
Contrary to claims made by its proponents, the waiver has not substantially promoted free and open emigration in Vietnam. In many aspects, emigration has become less free and less open because of increasingly rampant corruption. Over the past 12 months Vietnam has increasingly violated the basic human rights of its citizens, including labor rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. The waiver did not work and its renewal can not be justified. Our government should not give away one of the few leverages left without demanding, as preconditions, that Communist Vietnam make emigration truly free and open, respect its citizens' basic human rights, and reform its fundamentally corrupt system.