Remarks by President Carter -- free trade, unilateral and economic trade sanctions

President Carter's post-speech remarks on sanctions

The National Geographic Society

Washington, DC, 1/12/00

"One of the things we've used as a weapon, which I think is counterproductive, are sanctions. I think in every instance where we have sustained sanctions, they are counterproductive. In Iraq, Iran, Libya, Cuba, North Korea - we demonize those nations in their entirety.

"And the only demon in those countries, if there is one, would be the leader. But if we impose a sanction against the people who are already suffering under a despot, we tend to make a despot popular. And we give him an opportunity to say, 'All of the economic woes that you suffer are not because of my misrule, they're because of the American sanctions.'

"In addition to that, we hurt the people severely. I think it would be a very wonderful change if, for instance, we could remove all travel restraints to Cuba, which I did, by the way, the second month that I was in office. And if we had full diplomatic relations with the countries that I have mentioned, there would be some restraint from that, but it's really shocking to look at the World Health Organization and the United Nation's statistics of the instance of disease and the shortened life expectancy of the children in Iraq.

"It's hard to talk about this because some people are afraid you're defending Saddam Hussein. I think the best way to change the government of Iraq and Cuba and others, is to abandon our sanctions and let there be free trade, free visitation, then give them the food and medicine they need and let them see the advantages of trading with us and then maybe we can open their eyes to what freedom and democracy really mean."

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