Unilateral Sanctions

Using trade as a weapon of foreign policy has harmed America's economic interests in the world without advancing national security. The proliferation of trade sanctions in the 1990s has been accompanied by their declining effectiveness. From Cuba to Iran to Burma, sanctions have failed to achieve the goal of changing the behavior or the nature of target regimes. Sanctions have managed only to deprive American companies of investment opportunities and market share and to punish domestic consumers, while hurting the poor and most vulnerable in the target countries.

Since 1993, according to the president's Export Council, the United States has imposed more than 40 trade sanctions against about three dozen foreign countries. The council estimates that those sanctions have cost American exporters $15 billion to $19 billion in lost annual sales overseas, and caused long-term damage to U.S. companies--lost market share and reputations abroad as unreliable suppliers.

As well as inflicting economic damage, sanctions have been a foreign policy flop. A comprehensive study by the Institute for International Economics found that sanctions achieve their objectives in fewer than 20 percent of cases. For example, the Nuclear Proliferation Act of 1994 failed to deter India and Pakistan from testing nuclear weapons in May of 1998. Sanctions have utterly failed to change the nature or basic behavior of governments in Cuba, Burma, Iran, Nigeria, Yugoslavia, and a number of other target countries.

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Trade Policy Analysis

Trade Policy Analysis no. 1. U.S. Sanctions Against Burma: A Failure on All Fronts by Leon T. Hadar (March 26, 1998)

Trade Briefing Papers

Trade Briefing Paper no. 17. Ending the "Chicken War": The Case for Abolishing the 25 Percent Truck Tariff by Daniel Ikenson (June 18, 2003)

Trade Briefing Paper no. 14. Steel Trap: How Subsidies and Protectionism Weaken the U.S. Steel Industry by Daniel Ikenson (March 1, 2002)

Trade Briefing Paper no. 4. The Steel 'Crisis' and the Costs of Protectionism by Brink Lindsey, Daniel T. Griswold, and Aaron Lukas (April 16, 1999)

Trade Briefing Paper no. 3. State and Local Sanctions Fail Constitutional Test by David R. Schmahmann and James S. Finch (August 6, 1998)

Speeches and Testimony

Is Trade Liberalization a Product of Domestic or International Processes? Lessons from Doha (July 4, 2007)

Four Decades of Failure: The U.S. Embargo against Cuba (October 12, 2005)

Free Trade Bulletins

Free Trade Bulletin no. 20. America's Credibility Goes "Timber!" by Daniel Ikenson (October 28, 2005)

Free Trade Bulletin no. 5. "Byrdening" Relations: U.S. Trade Policies Continue to Flout the Rules by Dan Ikenson (January 13, 2004)

Free Trade Bulletin no. 4. A Clean Escape from $4 Billion in FSC Sanctions by Dan Griswold (May 30, 2003)

Books: Economic Casualties: How U.S. Foreign Policy Undermines Trade, Growth, and Liberty (March, 1999)

From the Cato Handbook for Congress: Trade Sanctions - 107th Congress (PDF) Trade Sanctions - 106th Congress (PDF)

Commentary

It's Not Just Oil By Daniel Ikenson (September 9, 2005)

Chinese Currency Issue is a Red Herring by Daniel Ikenson (May 3, 2005)

Enter the Protectionist Dragon by Daniel T. Griswold (February 13, 2005)

Reagan Embraced Free Trade and Immigration by Daniel T. Griswold (June 24, 2004)

The Big Three's Shameful Secret by Daniel J. Ikenson (July 6, 2003)

Honorable End to Steel Protectionism By Dan Ikenson (September 6, 2002)

The Embargo Harms Cubans and Gives Castro an Excuse for the Policy Failures of His Regime By Daniel T. Griswold (May 27, 2002)

California Prosperity and Chinese Reform by Mark A. Groombridge (May 23, 2002)

It's Time, Finally, to End the Cuban Embargo by Aaron Lukas (December 14, 2001)

Industry at Front of Corporate Welfare Line by Dan Ikenson (October 22, 2001)

Labor and Environment Sanctions Would Poison Trade Talks by Daniel T. Griswold (September 28, 2001)

Steel Trap: How Bush could harm free trade by Brink Lindsey (July 9, 2001)

A Wall of Steel by Daniel T. Griswold (July 8, 2001)

Time To End the War Against Yugoslavia by Aaron Lukas and Gary Dempsey (June 11, 2001)

Steel's Deal by Dan Ikenson (June 6, 2001)

Bush Turns Protectionist for Steel Companies by Daniel T. Griswold (June 6, 2001)

Antidumping Laws Hurt American Consumers by Dan Ikenson (March 7, 2001)

Going Alone on Economic Sanctions Hurts U.S. More than Foes by Daniel T. Griswold (November 27, 2000)

A Policy toward Cuba That Serves U.S. Interests by Philip Peters (November 2, 2000)

Brussels Sins, Cheese Lovers Do Penance by Aaron Lukas (August 2, 1999)

Steel quotas will harm U.S. by Brink Lindsey and Daniel T. Griswold (May 11, 1999)

Don't Meddle in the Steel Market by Aaron Lukas (March 1, 1999)

Protectionism Hurts Consumers by Daniel T. Griswold (February 4, 1999)

The U.S. Government's No-Win War on Imported Steel by Daniel T. Griswold (February 1, 1999)

Yes, We Sell No Bananas by Aaron Lukas (December 2, 1998)

A Better Strategy for Burma by Aaron Lukas (November 16, 1998)

Free Trade Nationalism by Brink Lindsey (November 2, 1998)

Industry Sets Steel Trap for U.S. Economy by Daniel T. Griswold (October 23, 1998)

Sanctions Backlash in Balkans by Gary Dempsey and Aaron Lukas (October 7, 1998)

The Other Tobacco War by Aaron Lukas (August 24, 1998)

A Personal Overview of U.S. Trade Policy by William A. Niskanen (June 24, 1998)

Two Cheers for India Sanctions by Aaron Lukas (May 22, 1998)

Dropping the Sanctions Ball on Kosovo by Aaron Lukas and Gary Dempsey (April 28, 1998)

Will the Sun Ever Set On Anti-dumping Orders? by Aaron Lukas (April 15, 1998)

Five Goals for U.S. Trade by Brink Lindsey (March 11, 1998)

Consumers See Red (tomatoes) by Aaron Lukas (March 2, 1998)

Stuck In Sanctions: U.S. Needs Way Out of Policy Morass by Aaron Lukas (February 9, 1998)

Antidumping Laws Trash Supercomputer Competition by Christopher M. Dumler (January 1, 1991)