Overuse of harsh sanctions like those deployed against
Iran to limit its nuclear program risks driving business activity from the
United States and a move away from the dollar as the world's reserve currency,
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday.
Sanctions have emerged as a favored policy tool of
choice for the United States, which has used them against challenges as varied
as drug trafficking, cyber attacks, jihadist financing, and Russian actions in
Ukraine.
The economic measures enable the U.S. government to
blacklist people and organizations, banning U.S. and sometimes even foreign
citizens from dealing with them and effectively barring them from the
international financial system.
For example, the United States was able to induce
buyers of Iranian oil to sharply curtail their purchases, and international
banks cut ties with Iran for fear of losing access to the U.S. financial
system. Iran reached a deal with the United States and other world powers last
July that lifted the harshest measures in return for curbs on its nuclear
program.
But "sanctions overreach" risks encouraging
businesses to avoid the U.S. financial system and could erode the power of the
U.S. dollar as the pre-eminent reserve currency, Lew said during a speech in
Washington.
"The more we condition use of the dollar and our
financial system on adherence to U.S. foreign policy, the more the risk of
migration to other currencies and other financial systems in the medium-term
grows," Lew said.
In particular, so-called secondary sanctions should be
wielded in the most "exceptional" circumstances, Lew said. Those
measures bar even non-U.S. citizens from dealing with sanctioned individuals or
companies, and were the type of sanctions levied against Iran.
"They are viewed even by some of our closest
allies as extra-territorial attempts to apply U.S. foreign policy to the rest
of the world," Lew said, adding that the Iran nuclear sanctions should not
be viewed as a "starting point" for other sanctions programs.
Republicans in Congress and on the presidential
campaign trail have criticized the removal of sanctions on Iran, and
legislators have tried to restrict President Barack Obama's ability to lift
sanctions under the nuclear deal.
But because Iran had "kept its end of the
deal," Lew said, the United States should uphold the sanctions relief it
has promised.
In recent weeks, Iranian leaders have complained that
U.S. policies have forced major banks and corporations to stay away from Iran
despite the formal lifting of sanctions in January.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Alistair
Bell)
No comments:
Post a Comment