When state Rep. Byron Rushing almost single-handedly pushed a Myanmar sanctions bill through the Massachusetts legislature, he had no idea it would cause so much anger. The 1996 bill effectively denies state contracts to any U.S. or foreign company doing business in Myanmar, formerly Burma, a nation ruled by a brutal military regime. Washington, which would have to defend the Bay State at the WTO, is upset by the bill. And a worried U.S. business group is ready to file the first lawsuit challenging the legality of state and local sanctions on international trade.
Sanctions Proliferate More trouble lies ahead.
In the post-Cold War world, where international disputes rarely warrant military action, U.S. economic sanctions are proliferating, especially at the state and local level. A decade ago, these were aimed primarily at South Africa's racist policies. Now those penalties have gone, along with apartheid. But states and cities learned they could affect foreign policy and, since 1995, at least three dozen new sanctions have been put on their books to punish various nations for assorted human-rights transgressions. Oakland, Calif., has sanctions on Nigeria while Dade County, Fla., has some against Cuba.