Statement of Rep. Calvin M. Dooley (D-CA)

Statement of the Honorable Calvin M. Dooley (D-CA)

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on on Tax, Finance, and Exports
of the House Small Business Committee

"Do Unilateral Economic Trade Sanctions Unfairly Penalize Small Business?"

June 24, 1999

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to testify in support of H.R. 1244, the Enhancement of Trade, Security and Human Rights through Sanctions Reform Act. I am pleased to join my colleagues, Chairman Phil Crane and Don Manzullo as the lead sponsors of this important legislation, and that the legislation has generated broad-based bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.

Our message is simple. H.R. 1244 is designed to improve the way the U.S. government makes decisions to impose unilateral sanctions and to create a commonsense framework for the consideration of future unilateral sanctions policy.

In recent years the imposition of unilateral sanctions by the U.S. has exploded, with more than 75 nations currently subject to or threatened by U.S. sanctions. While unilateral economic sanctions have been used as foreign policy tools for many years, they have proven to be largely ineffective in achieving their intended goal.

In fact, too often the U.S. imposition of unilateral sanctions has caused more harm to our economy than to the economy of the nation the sanctions were intended to punish. The imposition of unilateral sanctions costs between $15 and $19 billion annually in U.S. exports and more than 200,000 high-wage jobs, causing serious damage to U.S. trade and competitiveness in international markets.

Last year, Congress acted to exempt agricultural products from the sanctions imposed against India and Pakistan after both countries conducted unauthorized nuclear testing. I supported the legislation, as did the vast majority of our congressional colleagues. Yesterday, the Senate approved legislation that would exempt agricultural products from sanctions imposed on foreign nations. The House Agriculture Committee has approved similar legislation. And why have we moved to exempt agricultural products from imposed sanctions? One reason is because we don't want U.S. farmers to suffer adverse economic impacts by losing access to important foreign markets. Our legislation builds on the basic sentiment that has been embraced by an overwhelming majority of our colleagues with regards to agricultural products, and simply argues that before imposing unilateral sanctions, Members of Congress should have access to basic information, including the economic implications of unilateral sanctions for all sectors of our domestic economy.

Under our sanctions reform legislation, before sanctions could be imposed by either the Congress or the President an analysis of the anticipated impact of sanctions to U.S. economic, foreign policy and humanitarian interests would be required. The Congressional Budget Office would also be required to analyze the economic impact that proposed sanctions would have on American workers, farmers and businesses.

Our current sanctions policy is hurting U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace and harming U.S. workers and businesses more than the country targeted by the sanctions. When Members of Congress and the Administration consider the imposition of unilateral sanctions, we need to have a sound decision-making process to ensure they have relevant economic data. Our legislation would create a type of cost-benefit analysis process to ensure that Congress and the Administration understand the impact and efficacy of proposed unilateral sanctions.

The sanctions reform legislation would also establish an annual review of all existing sanctions and their effectiveness in addressing foreign policy goals, and would exclude food and medicine exports from future U.S. sanctions.

Let me be clear. Our legislation would not eliminate the imposition of unilateral sanctions as a foreign policy tool. We agree that, in some cases, sanctions can be a useful foreign policy tool. All we would require under this legislation is for members of Congress to receive the information necessary to make an informed decision.

We need a common sense approach to unilateral sanctions . The Enhancement of Trade, Security, and Human Rights through Sanctions Reform Act seeks to restore an appropriate balance to U.S. sanctions policy and to ensure that we apply a common sense framework when consider the imposition of future unilateral sanctions.

Thank you again for allowing me to testify before you today. I look forward to working with members of this committee to advance this important legislation.

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