When the US Uses Its Power to Get Paid

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/242110/when-the-us-uses-its-power-to-get-paid/



This recourse to economic sanctions is a common form of coercive diplomacy that the U.S. uses at the whim of its current political and economic interests.

When the US Uses Its Power to Get Paid
Le Monde, France
By Guillaume Devin
Translated By Laura Napoli
8 July 2014
Edited by Lau­rence Bouvard

The astronomical fine that the BNP Paribas bank must pay to U.S. authorities reveals a serious legal and political scandal: the embargo laws, in whose name the U.S. places sanctions on all who don't conform to its foreign policy. This practice now seems so commonplace that most of us are not troubled by it.

Yet, the unilateral U.S. policy of economic sanctions for a growing number of countries is a very regrettable practice. The only entity that should be able to do this is the United Nations, and specifically the U.N. Security Council, which has the sole authority to take such measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter.

In 2013, the Security Council established 13 sanctions regimes: al-Qaida, North Korea, the Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia (including Eritrea and pirates), Sudan and the Taliban. But that’s not enough for the United States. On its own, has placed sanctions on around 70 countries, in a more or less targeted manner.

A Secondary Boycott

This recourse to economic sanctions is a common form of coercive diplomacy that the U.S. uses at the whim of its current political and economic interests. Thus, we have an embargo against Cuba in response to the persistent demands of the powerful anti-Castro lobby, as well as sanctions against Iran that stem from 1996, when the D’Amato-Kennedy Act sought to protect American investments against foreign competition in the Iranian energy sector, such as Total.

[dipsydoodle]

1. This practice now seems so commonplace......

I doubt that will persist forever.

Eventually the US will simply be told to fuck off unless they want all US trade shut down.