12 September, 1997
The Commercial Appeal
Editorial

Sanctions and sanctity

UNILATERAL TRADE sanctions generally do not work and are counterproductive. Our longstanding sanctions against Cuba, Libya and Iran seem to have perpetuated the regimes they were designed to topple.

That's why the proposed Freedom From Religious Persecution Act of 1997, although well-intentioned, is bad policy. The act would trigger an array of sanctions against nations deemed to engage in religious persecution: denial of loans, guarantees and insurance essential to trade, and bans on the sale of specific goods.

The law would be a nightmare to administer. It would create an autonomous White House enforcement agency with the almost theological function of defining degrees of persecution and fine tuning the U.S. response. Inevitably that agency would be put in the untenable position of establishing what religions are important or powerful enough for the United States to defend.

The bill is aimed at China's odious mistreatment of Christians and Tibetan Buddhists. But - its sponsors say it could trigger sanctions against a dozen other countries, and opponents say it could affect another dozen more.

Although China's record on religious persecution is not good, it is far better than it was when China was a closed society. Religious tolerance is a function of an open society, and trade is a way of fostering open societies.

None of this is to say we should turn a blind eye to religious persecution, which is especially repugnant to America's founding ideals. Where we find it, we should denounce it. We should support persecuted religious minorities. We should continue to be a haven for the truly oppressed.

And if we encounter sufficiently heinous persecution, we should seek, along with the many nations who share our values, multilateral sanctions in the international forums we so often spurn in favor of going it alone.

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