News & Insights

Washington DC – USA*Engage today released the following statement in response to the Administration’s announcement of additional sanctions on Iran.

“We welcome the Administration’s multilateral work with our allies to impose expanded sanctions on entities in Iran that materially support Iran’s nuclear procurement network,” said Bill Reinsch, President of the National Foreign Trade Council and Co-Chair of USA*Engage. “As advocates of ‘smart’ sanctions and opponents of extraterritorial, unilateral sanctions, we applaud the Administration for taking decisive, coordinated and focused action under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act and the USA PATRIOT Act.”

“We applaud the Administration for carving out financial transactions for humanitarian trade, as far too often the unintended consequences of broad-brush sanctions negatively affect citizens of sanctioned nations, while failing to have any real impact on the regime they are intended to target,” said Richard Sawaya, Director of USA*Engage.

“Given the Administration’s action, we urge Congress to refrain from taking any steps to enact additional, unilateral sanctions, either in stand-alone legislation or as amendments to other ‘must pass’ legislation. Such measures would be counterproductive to deliberative, multilateral measures,” Sawaya concluded.

 

###

 

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 world wide.

About NFTC
Advancing Global Commerce for Nearly A Century- The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.
Follow us on: