15 September 1997
Financial Times
Nancy Dunne

US Companies Plan Attack on Sanctions -
Lobby Group Claims Markets Are Being Lost

Washington -- USA Engage, a coalition of more than 600 companies and business groups, plans a counter-attack against the increasing imposition of trade sanctions by federal, state and local governments.

USA companies contend that they have lost markets because of the proliferation of sanctions against countries for their records on weapons trade, drug trafficking and human rights. According to USA Engage, 61 unilateral sanctions have been imposed on 35 countries in the last four years.

The "Strength Through Engagement Act," sponsored by Senator Richard Lugar and congressman Lee Hamilton, two respected foreign policy hands, is due to be introduced in both houses of Congress this week.

The bill would require assessments of the sanctions' economic impact and likelihood of their success. The president would obtain authority to waive sanctions if he concluded it is not in the US interest; they would be reviewed annually and expire after two years unless Congress renewed them.

The legislation would not apply to existing sanctions such as the Helms-Burton law intended to curb investment in Cuba.

USA Engage is also planning a constitutional challenge against state and local sanctions, such as Massachusetts' laws aimed at companies doing business in Burma. It will be argued that these so called "selective purchasing laws" - prohibiting public agencies from purchasing goods or services from companies doing business in the sanctioned country - interfere with the federal government's power to conduct foreign policy and regulate foreign commerce.

"Our goal is to have legislation which is reasonable, serious and supported by serious members of Congress," said Bill Lane, a lobbyist for Caterpillar, the heavy machinery manufacturer.

USA Engage is monitoring 189 unilateral economic measures imposed or proposed against 42 countries by US federal state and local governments since 1993. Twenty-seven measures have been introduced in this session of Congress.

One of the most worrying bills to business is a measure which would impose sanctions for the persecution of Christians. It would appoint a White House director of religious persecution and impose immediate sanctions on Sudan and target China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others.

Business leaders say the sanctions proposals result from the failure of the US to find a unified foreign policy goal after the end of the cold war. "In that vacuum is all kinds of scope for opportunism," said one lobbyist. "Any member of Congress can stake out a leadership position because there is no national purpose."

USA Engage is working with about 20 different groups - think-tanks, anti-terrorist organisations, narcotics experts and churches - in an effort to get "fresh thinking" about new diplomatic tools to handle disputes and crises.

Copyright Financial Times Limited 1997

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