FTC president warns lawmakers against unilateral Iran sanctions

William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and a former Commerce Department official during the Clinton administration, urged Capitol Hill lawmakers Tuesday of the dangers associated with implementing unilateral sanctions against Iran.

There is no question that Iran's behavior poses grave concerns for the United States and our allies. Iran's pursuit of a nuclear program is deeply troubling and its documented support for terrorist organizations is unacceptable, Reinsch testified before the Senate Finance Committee.

But it is important to consider which approach is most likely to change the behavior we all want to see changed, he said. By picking fights with our allies and limiting the ability of this and future presidents to negotiate directly with Iran, legislation like S. 970 (Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007) would make it more difficult for the United States to address the threats posed by Iran.

Reinsch said: Passing S. 970 would come at a heavy price.

Citing a recent report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Reinsch said historically unilateral sanctions fail to achieve their intended goals.

Given that the regime has learned how to survive decades of sanctions, more pressure by the United States alone is very unlikely to convince Iran to change its behavior, he said. Instead, the best hope of altering Iran's behavior is through vigorous and unified multilateral pressure in concert with our allies and Security Council partners, combined with direct diplomacy with Iran.

Another aspect of S. 970 faulted by the NFTC president is the call to codify existing executive order prohibitions on all exports except food and medicine, and all Iranian imports.Codifying these prohibitions would remove the ability of a U.S. president to offer incentives or to respond to positive developments in Iran in a timely fashion, Reinsch said. He also noted that this approach presents humanitarian concerns, because exports of life-saving medical devices could be banned, negatively impacting the people in Iran.

Reinsch said a better approach would be to fund a high-level special envoy for Iran with the authority to engage in direct bilateral talks in partnership with the international community.

The United States has made some progress negotiating an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program through direct diplomatic engagement, he said. When it comes to Iran, there is already a framework for cooperation -- security talks in Baghdad -- and precedent -- the United States and Iran cooperated in the past to support democratic governance in Afghanistan.

Source: American Shipper