• 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 promotes core values. 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.
  
  
• Economic Engagement Promotes Freedom. 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.
  
  
• Unilateral economic sanctions threaten engagement. Engagement is a powerful agent for change, but sanctions cut it off. In just four years the United States has imposed 61 unilateral economic sanctions on 35 countries, according to a recent study. These countries contain about 40% of the world's population. They are about one-fifth of potential export markets for American goods, services and farm products.
  
  
• Unilateral sanctions are not an effective tool of conducting US foreign policy. The world's challenges require strong American leadership and the support of our allies. American jobs, growth and prosperity are tied to US international competitiveness. The proliferation of unilateral economic sanctions at the federal, state and local level undermines both:
  
  
  Unilateral sanctions are counterproductive and almost always ineffective - disrupting relations with our allies and providing ammunition to our opponents -- The Foreign Policy Effects of Unilateral Sanctions
  
  Unilateral economic sanctions hand markets to our competitors - frequently the fast-growing markets of the future - and hurt American companies, farmers and workers -- US unilateral sanctions hurt Americans
  
  
• The United States should promote engagement and establish a standard of accountability for sanctions. The US government should promote engagement at all levels - political, economic, charitable, religious, educational and cultural - as the best tool to advance America's interests overseas. The government also should impose a standard of accountability on unilateral economic sanctions proposals - evaluating the effectiveness and side effects including harm to the target's civilian population, the costs imposed on Americans, and the implications for effective engagement.

Who we are: USA*ENGAGE is a coalition of Americans from all regions and segments of our economy, speaking out for American engagement overseas. Over six hundred and fifty large and small businesses, farm organizations and trade associations are members.

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