SANCTIONS RISK AND COMPLIANCE: THE BIDEN PERSPECTIVE
While the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is undoubtedly the most pressing issue in Joe Biden’s bulging intray, there are other matters, such as the legitimacy and effectiveness of economic and trade sanctions, that also require the new president’s attention.
Over the past four years, sanctions have been a central foreign policy tool under the Trump administration, imposed as a means of bringing countries the US views as hostile, such as Iran, China, Venezuela and Cuba, into line.
“The operating principle was one of ‘maximum pressure’,” says Timothy P. O’Toole, a member at Miller & Chevalier Chartered. “Sanctions targeted against hostile regimes that were continually ratcheted upward unless, and until, a regime changes its ways or becomes more friendly to the US.”
Illustrating how extensively the principle was applied during the previous US administration is the number of sanctions that came into force upon the lifting of Trump’s pen. According to Dow Jones, on average, sanctions were imposed on more than 900 entities or individuals each year for the last four years, almost 80 percent more than the annual number of designations introduced by president Obama.
In 2020 alone, more than 700 entities or individuals were added to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC’s) sanctions list. By the end of the Trump presidency, the figure stood at 8000 (up from 5000 in 2017), with almost 20 nations having been sanctioned. Also, many of Trump’s circa 3600 sanctions made no distinction between friend and foe – ranging from those imposed on NATO ally Turkey over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson, to Iran, which was the target of more than half of the US’ restrictive measures.
Apr-Jun 2021 Issue
Fraser Tennant