H.R. 2708 would improve the way the U.S. government makes decisions to impose unilateral economic sanctions for foreign policy purposes. The U.S. needs economic sanctions in its foreign policy toolkit. But we have imposed sanctions much more frequently and broadly in recent years. According to the President's Export Council, more than 75 countries are now subject to, or threatened by, U.S. sanctions. U.S. laws authorize 21 different sanctions targeting 27 different kinds of foreign conduct.
Unilateral sanctions can harm our economy.
Losing exports on this scale means passing up tens of thousands of good-paying export sector jobs. Many U.S. executives say our growing reputation for sanctions is itself discouraging potential foreign customers from dealing with U.S. firms. Unilateral sanctions might be worth these costs if they achieved their worthy aims, but nearly every study confirms that they rarely do. Unilateral measures generally fail because the world economy has become too interdependent. When we act alone to deny a country access to our products or our markets, it usually has plenty of alternatives.