Engagement is a key tool for America. America's values, security and prosperity are best advanced by sustained public and private sector involvement in world affairs. American engagement abroad is a powerful tool for change, and economic engagement is a key element. Businesses and farmers - exporting, investing, purchasing - promote safe working conditions, social infrastructure, human rights and economic growth - which leads to greater personal and political freedom.

American engagement has promoted freedom worldwide. A wave of economic liberalization and democracy has swept the world in the last decade. Prosperous economies have gone hand in hand with democratic and human rights reform in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. American engagement has strengthened this trend.

States and localities should promote engagement at all levels. Engagement at all levels - political, economic, charitable, religious, educational and cultural - is the best tool to advance America's interests overseas. State and local governments can play a significant role through development offices, international exchanges and similar activities.

State and local sanctions threaten engagement. State and local sanctions cut off engagement. Consideration of sanctions at the state and local level is proliferating: states and localities are considering sanctions on a broad group of countries including Switzerland, Egypt, Indonesia, Cuba, Vietnam, Burma and several former Soviet Republics.

State and local sanctions are counterproductive and ineffective. State and local sanctions undercut efforts to attract international investment that supports jobs and economic growth. They force companies to choose between regional markets and growing international markets. A choice to forego opportunities abroad benefits foreign competitors at the expense of American companies, farmers and workers. The opposite choice raises taxpayer costs and threatens potential exports and job opportunities. States and localities do not have the economic leverage to influence a foreign country. Indeed, even the United States rarely has sufficient leverage when it acts alone.

State and local sanctions undermine American leadership. The world's challenges require strong American leadership and the support of our allies. To lead the United States must speak with one voice. State and local sanctions frustrate cooperation with U.S. trading partners who frequently view them as a violation of U.S. international commitments.

State and local sanctions interfere with national foreign policy. Effective U.S. foreign policy requires a broad range of tools -- political, strategic, diplomatic and economic. State and local governments are not equipped for this activity - they have none of the foreign policy tools available to Congress and the President. Worse, state and local actions can run counter to federal policy. That is why the constitution vests foreign policy and foreign economic powers at the federal level. State and local governments should support a coherent national foreign policy.

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