U.S. Eases Vietnam Curbs for Humanitarian Needs : Embargo: Commercial sales, nonprofit groups’ activities will be allowed. Washington cites Hanoi’s cooperation on MIAs.

WASHINGTON —  The State Department for the second time this month announced new moves Wednesday to ease the long U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam. Officials said the moves recognize increased Vietnamese cooperation in resolving the cases of Americans still listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War.

Under the new regulations, the embargo will be lifted for commercial sales of food, medicine, clothing, agricultural supplies and other materials to meet basic human needs. In another exemption, restrictions will be lifted on the activities of American non-governmental and nonprofit organizations doing humanitarian work in Vietnam.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said the Commerce and Treasury departments will begin immediately to accept applications for commercial sales and for the transfer of goods and money by nonprofit organizations.

On April 13, the State Department announced the first major easing of the trade embargo when it agreed to restore direct telecommunications links with Vietnam. An official of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. said service began last Saturday at midnight and that calling has been very heavy. He said many more lines will be in place within a few weeks.

A State Department official said the moves reflect Vietnam’s support for the Cambodian peace process and “the positive momentum of the last several months” in resolving the MIA issue.

At a news conference Tuesday, committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said he and four other senators who went to Hanoi and other Indochinese capitals during the Easter recess made “a real and significant breakthrough” toward full accounting for the missing Americans, especially in Vietnam. Among other things, senators were permitted to make short-notice visits to a Hanoi prison where captive Americans were held during the war.

Despite some previous sensational charges that some Americans are still being held against their will, Kerry reported that “as of this moment, neither our (U.S.) teams nor this committee has any specific information about a specific individual being alive” in either Vietnam or Laos.