Washington, DC – In a communiqué today to congressional offices, USA*Engage stated:
“The crisis in Ukraine demands a concerted response from the European Union and the United States.
“The Obama Administration has worked with the EU, and particularly Germany, to implement targeted economic sanctions to change the calculations of persons identified as responsible for the violence in Ukraine. The President and Germany’s Chancellor Merkel have made clear that further, coordinated sanctions will be implemented, depending on events in Ukraine, critically the Presidential elections scheduled for May 25.
“Recently, some Members of Congress have called for legislation of draconian, unilateral U.S. sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy and exclusion of Russia from the global financial system.
“The historical record is clear; unilateral U.S. sanctions are a lose-lose tactic. The U.S. sanctions fail because companies in other countries fill the void left by U.S. companies, U.S. companies lose markets to their global competitors, and U.S. company assets may have to be abandoned with inevitable loss for the U.S. economy. Only multilateral sanctions, actually adhered to, have any chance of tactical success.”
Click here to read the full communiqué.
About USA*Engage
USA*Engage (www.usaengage.org) is a coalition of small and large businesses, agriculture groups and trade associations working to seek alternatives to the proliferation of unilateral U.S. foreign policy sanctions and to promote the benefits of U.S. engagement abroad. Established in 1997 and organized under the National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org), USA*Engage leads a campaign to inform policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public about the counterproductive nature of unilateral sanctions, the importance of exports and overseas investment for American competitiveness and jobs, and the role of American companies in promoting human rights and democracy worldwide.
