Department of State Fact Sheet on Implementation of President's Policy on Food and Medical Sanctions

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Implementation of President's Policy on Food and Medical Sanctions
Fact Sheet Released by the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
U.S. Department of State, July 27, 1999

On July 26, 1999, the Department of the Treasury issued changes to the Iran, Libya and Sudan sanctions regulations concerning the sale of certain agricultural commodities, medicine and medical equipment implements.

The changes were intended to implement President Clinton's announcement of April 28, 1999 that the United States would henceforth exempt commercial sales of agricultural commodities and products, medicine, and medical equipment from future unilateral economic sanctions regimes.

In addition, the President decided that the Administration would extend that policy to existing economic sanctions programs by modifying licensing policies for currently embargoed countries to permit a case-by-case review of specific proposals for commercial sales.

The new regulations, issued by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), permit the sale of agricultural commodities and products intended for use as food, and medicines, and medical equipment provided they are not on the Commerce Control List in effect on the date of exportation.

As the President said, this change in policy has been implemented as part of the overall United States Government approach to sanctions reform. It is not directed at any specific country. Rather, it reflects a calculation of the impact on overall policy objectives of including food and medicine in unilateral sanctions. Sales of food, medicine and medical equipment do not generally enhance a nation's military capacity or ability to support terrorism. On the contrary, funds spent on agricultural commodities are not available for other, less desirable uses. The purpose in applying sanctions is to influence the behavior of regimes, not to deny people their basic humanitarian needs.

The new regulations do not provide for the automatic approval of food and medicine sales. Each contract will still have to pass through a policy filter. However, the regulations shift the presumption in favor of approving such sales. At the same time, there will be no U.S. Government funding or financing in support of such sales authorized by the change.

There are, of course, circumstances under which such commercial sales will not be permitted. These include:

armed conflict involving the United States or its allies;
the diversion by a regime of agricultural or medical imports to its armed forces or its political supporters;
or situations where the regime or its officials would derive an unjustifiable economic benefit from these imports.

Sanctions are a legitimate tool of our foreign policy. But the United States has always sought to limit their impact on innocent and vulnerable populations. For 2 years, the Administration has been working to ensure that sanctions are carefully targeted, advance foreign policy goals, and avoid as much as possible damage to other U.S. interests. The U.S. Government has--and continues to have--extensive discussions of these issues with the Congress with the goal of comprehensive sanctions reform.

The announced changes reflect the basic objectives of overall sanctions reform effort:

to ensure that unilateral economic sanctions are effective;
that the costs to U.S. interests of imposing sanctions are minimized; and
that the President retain the flexibility to impose sanctions--even on food and medicine--should circumstances warrant.

Details on the new regulations are available from the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Second Floor Annex, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20220, Tel: (202) 622-2520 or on the Internet at www.treas.gov/ofac

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