Published
01/30/2026, 14:36The US administration supports a bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which restricts US trade with the republics of Central Asia. This was stated by US Secretary of State and Assistant to the US President for National Security Marco Rubio at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, TASS reports.
“We agree. We agree,” Rubio emphasized when answering a question about the possibility of repealing the amendment and further developing Washington's relations with the countries in the region.
He added that lifting the restrictions would allow the US to expand its cooperation with the Central Asian republics.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment was passed by the US Congress in 1974 and initially linked trade preferences to issues of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. For a long time, the document was considered in American politics to be an archaic instrument tied to the historical conditions of the Cold War.
Rubio previously called the amendment “a relic of a bygone era” and supported initiatives to repeal it in relation to Central Asian countries. At the hearings, he also recalled that the US Department of Commerce had recognized Kazakhstan as a market economy, which is one of the steps towards deepening the region's economic ties with the American market.
According to the senators, a bill has already been drafted to repeal the amendment with regard to Central Asia, and the US administration's support for this move significantly increases the chances of the document being passed by Congress.
