Sanctions and COVID-19

James KnuppIn the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. sanctions continue to have a  major impact on the lives of citizens in a number of countries, including Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. How do sanctions affect a country during a pandemic? And does this crisis make a case for reimagining how the United States conducts sanctions?Yesterday afternoon, Richard Nephew of Columbia University joined Cato ’s Emma Ashford and John Glaser to discuss U.S. sanctions policy, and especially how the current pandemic has been exacerbated by these sanctions, in a live stream event, “Economic Sanctions during a  Pandemic. ”While sanctions often have a  devastating effect on the populations of targeted countries, crisis or no, humanitarian aid and supplies are supposed to be exempted under the 2000 Sanction Trade Reform Act. However, as Richard Nephew pointed out, sanctions inherently raise the cost of doing business with a country, even when th e business is humanitarian in nature, which discourages many companies from engaging with them. This has prevented much‐​needed resources for dealing with the pandemic from reaching sanctioned countries. Nephew suggested that even if the Trump administration is opposed to temporarily lifting san ctions, the United States should work with firms to facilitate certain transactions and meet humanitarian needs.The effect of sanctions during the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the need to reevaluate U.S. strategy. Sanctions broadly ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs