Trade Sanctions
Trade and economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted country, group, or individual. Trade sanctions may include various forms of trade barriers, tariffs, and restrictions on financial transactions which stop the export and import processes. Trade sanctions can be used in order to achieve domestic and international purposes.
Governments and multinational bodies impose economic sanctions to try to alter the strategic decisions of state and non-state members that threaten their interests or violate international norms of behavior.
USE OF SANCTIONS
National governments and international bodies like the United Nations and European Union have imposed economic sanctions to coerce, deter, punish, or shame entities that endanger their interests or violate international norms of behavior. They have been used to advance a range of foreign policy goals, including counterterrorism, counternarcotics, nonproliferation, democracy and human rights promotion, conflict resolution, and, most recently, cybersecurity. The government of the state introduce different sanctions in case it considers them beneficiary for its economical and political situation.
Sanctions are generally viewed as an alternative to military force- a lower-cost, lower-risk, middle course of action between diplomacy and war. Policymakers may consider sanctions a response to foreign crises in which the national interest is less than vital or where military action is not feasible. Leaders can on occasion issue sanctions rapidly to buy additional time to evaluate and prepare more punitive action.
Every exporter as well as importer has to be informed abut the sanction, established by the state in order to prepare all the necessary documents and not to break the trade rules and international export and import standards.
THE SANCTION PROCESS AT THE UNITED NATIONS
As the UN’s principal management body, the Security Council is one, responsable for sanctions establishng. Sanctions resolutions must pass the fifteen-member Council by a majority vote and without a veto from any of the five permanent members: the United States, China, France, Russia, the UK. The most common types of UN sanctions, which are binding on all member states, are asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes.
THE SANCTION PROCESS IN THE EU
The European Union imposes sanctions (known more commonly in the twenty-eight-member bloc as restrictive measures) as part of its Common Foreign and Security Policy. Because the EU lacks a joint military force, many European leaders consider sanctions the bloc’s most powerful foreign policy tool. Sanctions policies must receive unanimous consent from member states in the Council of the European Union, the body that represents EU leaders.
THE SANCTION PROCESS IN THE USA
The United States uses economic and financial sanctions more than any other country. Sanctions policy may originate in either the executive or legislative branches. Presidents typically launch the process by issuing an executive order (EO) that declares a national emergency in response to an “unusual and extraordinary” foreign threat, such as “the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons” (EO 12938). This affords the president special powers (pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act) to regulate commerce with regard to that threat for a period of one year, unless extended by him/her or terminated by a joint resolution of Congress.
