24 August 1997
The Seattle Times
Donna Smith

Business Coalition Fights Trade Sanctions
by Activist Cities, States, Counties

WASHINGTON - U.S. businesses alarmed by a proliferation of trade sanctions by federal, state and local governments are pushing for legislation to make it harder to use commerce as a weapon in international disagreements.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., plan to introduce a bill next month designed to slow down the trend toward unilateral trade sanctions or at least force lawmakers to think twice before imposing them.

The proposed legislation is still being written, but a business coalition that has been lobbying for action said it would likely require an analysis on the economic costs of proposed sanctions and that any sanctions expire after two years. Current sanctions would be unaffected.

USA*Engage and its 632 business and organization members argue that unilateral trade sanctions, such as a U.S. ban on nuclear power plant sales to China, rarely work and often backfire on American interests.

William Lane, a Caterpillar lobbyist who has been working with the USA*Engage coalition, said Cuba is an example of trade sanctions failing to accomplish their stated purpose.

"If the goal of the sanctions is to keep the Cuban people poor, there is certainly the case that they have been successful," he said. "But if the goal is to get (Cuban leader Fidel) Castro out, they have been a colossal failure."

At the state and local level, the group said it was working with lawmakers on alternative ways to express concerns about countries and is considering a court challenge on the constitutionality of sanctions imposed by states and local governments.

USA*Engage is currently tracking some 189 unilateral economic measures imposed or proposed against 42 countries by U.S. federal, state and local governments since 1993.

A Massachusetts law banning government purchases from companies doing business in Burma because of human rights abuses is being challenged in the World Trade Organization by the European Union. Massachusetts is considering a similar ban against Indonesia.

One estimate puts the loss of U.S. exports because of trade sanctions at $20 billion. But Lane said the estimate may be conservative and does not take into account less tangible costs, including making U.S. companies more unreliable as suppliers and handing over markets to foreign competitors.

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