07 August 1997
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Editorial

Slow Down Sanctions

Embargoes against misbehaving countries occasionally do good -- the world's shunning of South Africa probably helped end apartheid -- but America seems to be employing sanctions promiscuously.

During the Cold War, Washington imposed economic measures 79 times on adversarial regimes. Since 1993, Washington, states and localities have slapped 142 unilateral sanctions on 41 countries.

In truth, unilateral embargoes are rarely effective. Other nations are not nearly so inclined to employ them as we. Embargoes allow the targeted country to go shopping elsewhere. Then, the injured party is the American exporter -- businessperson and worker. A study by the Institute of International Economics estimates that U.S. exports to 26 sanctioned countries fell by at least $15 billion in 1995, costing as many as a quarter-million jobs.

Two Hoosiers would slow down embargo-mania. Sen. Richard Luger (R) and Rep. Lee Hamilton (D) will soon introduce a bill requiring a study of a proposed embargo to see if it would likely have its desired effect - making Country X release political prisoners or Country Y stop polluting the oceans. Also, a sanction's benefits would have to outweigh any harm to innocent third parties. New sanctions would be reviewed annually and expire in two years unless renewed.

Almost all this seems reasonable -- though the president should be able to override the law in a crisis. Aside from backfiring economically, embargoes tend to get a country's back up, rallying disparate parties against American "bullying." And they have become ludicrously trendy. Burma's regime may be ogreish, but the federal government already bans investment there. Does North Carolina really need to get in on the act?

Sometimes economic sanctions work. Sometimes they are morally compulsory in any case. (Nobody admires the Swedes for trading with the Nazis.) But a lot of thinking ought to precede their enactment. That's what the Lugar-Hamilton bill would ensure.

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