Speech by Secretary of Commerce William Daley

Speech by Secretary of Commerce William Daley

Before the National Conference of State Legislatures
July 23, 1998

Mr. Daley: Now, let me end with one international issue -- economic sanctions. Lately, we have become a sanction happy nation. Today, the United States has sanctions on more than half the world's population. And in the last few years we have seen three dozen states and cities create or consider sanctions. They want to punish a handful of nation for action they think are wrong.
It could be for human rights abuses, for religiou persecution, for terrorism. All reasonable enough concerns.
At times, sanctions work. They worked in South Africa to bring an end to apartheid. But they worked there because many nations, not just the United States, applied them.
The fact is, most of our sanctions have had a poor record of success. Few nations follow our course. And the people who have been hurt are not the sanctioned countries.
The people are the workers in your states. The ones who have lost contracts to build airplanes, and helicopters, and automotive parts, and elevators to competitors in Japan and Europe.
Some say sanctions cost American companies $20 billion a year in unrealized business. That is 200,000 high paying jobs.
I understand the politics -- it is easy to cast a vote in support of human rights. That is a no brainer. But I ask that before you enact new laws, you consider the economic impact on your state's workers and business. Ask how many jobs will be lost? Ask how much business will be unrealized? Ask if your companies will be branded as unreliable suppliers?
Recently, we have seen signs of hope on this issue in Washington. Congress seems to be re-assessing its thinking on the use of sanctions. I encourage you to do the same.
Just as we need to work together on the census, I hope we can work on this issue as well.
Thank you very much.

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