An embargo is a government-mandated restriction of trade or exchange with one or more countries. During an embargo, no goods or services may be imported or exported into the embargoed country or countries. Unlike military blockades, which can be seen as acts of war, embargoes are legally imposed barriers to trade.
In foreign policy, embargoes usually result from diplomatic, economic or political relationships between the countries involved. For example, since the Cold War, the United States has maintained an economic embargo against Cuba for human rights violations by the island nation's communist government.
see more
Inequality: IBGE discloses the 10 worst states to…
Israel is the 4th strongest military power in the world; check the ranking
Embargoes take many different forms. A trade embargo prevents the export of specific goods or services. A strategic embargo only prohibits the sale of military-related goods or services.
ADVERTISING
Sanitary embargoes are enacted to protect people, animals and plants. For example, sanitary trade restrictions imposed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) prohibit imports and exports of endangered animals and plants.
Some trade embargoes allow the exchange of certain goods, such as food and medicine, to meet humanitarian needs. In addition, most multinational embargoes contain clauses that allow some exports or imports subject to a limited set of restrictions.
Historically, most embargoes have failed. While the imposed restrictions can change the policies of a democratic government, citizens of countries under totalitarian control lack the political power to influence their governments.
ADVERTISING
Furthermore, totalitarian governments typically have little concern about how trade sanctions might harm their citizens. For example, the US trade embargo and economic sanctions against Cuba, which have been in place for over 50 years, have largely failed to change the repressive policies of the Castro regime.
Since the end of the Cold War, several Western nations have tried to change the Russian Federation's policies through a series of economic sanctions. However, the Russian government does not respond to the sanctions, claiming that the sanctions are aimed at weakening the country's economy by replacing President Vladimir Putin's government.
Russia has imposed economic sanctions against its own satellite nations of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. These sanctions were enacted in an attempt to stem the trend of these nations towards Western-style capitalist economies. So far, sanctions have had little success. In 2016, Ukraine entered into a multinational free trade agreement with the European Union.
Embargoes are not as violent as guns and bombs, but they still have the potential to harm the people and economies of the nations involved.
Embargoes can cut off the flow of essential goods and services to civilians in the embargoed country, potentially to a harmful degree. In the embargoed country, companies may miss out on opportunities to trade or invest in the embargoed country.
ADVERTISING
For example, under current embargoes, US companies are banned from potentially lucrative markets in Cuba and Iran, and French shipbuilders were forced to freeze or cancel scheduled sales of military transport ships to France. Russia.
Furthermore, embargoes often result in counterattacks. When the US joined other Western nations in enforcing economic sanctions against Russia in 2014, Moscow retaliated by banning food imports from those nations.
Embargoes also have consequences for the world economy. In a reversal of the globalization trend, companies are starting to see themselves as dependent on their home governments. As a result, these companies are hesitant to invest in foreign nations.
Furthermore, global trade patterns, which are traditionally influenced only by economic considerations, are increasingly forced to respond to geopolitical alignments.
According to the World Economic Forum in Geneva, the outcome of multinational embargoes is never a “zero-sum game”. Backed by the power of its government, the nation with the strongest economy can do more harm to the target country than suffer in return. However, this punishment does not always succeed in forcing the embargoed country's government to change its political misconduct.
In March 1958, the United States imposed an embargo prohibiting arms sales to Cuba. In February 1962, the US responded to the Cuban Missile Crisis by expanding the embargo to include other imports and most other forms of trade.
While sanctions remain in place today, few of America's former Cold War allies still use them. honour, and the Cuban government continues to deny the Cuban people basic freedoms and rights humans.
During 1973 and 1974, the United States was subject to an oil embargo imposed by member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Intended to punish the US for its support of Israel in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, the embargo led to sky-high gas prices, fuel shortages, gas rationing and a short-term recession. term.
The OPEC oil embargo also spurred continued oil conservation efforts and the development of alternative energy sources. Today, the US and its Western allies continue to support Israel in the Middle East conflict.
In 1986, the United States imposed strict trade embargoes against South Africa, in opposition to the government's long-term policies of racial apartheid.
Along with pressure from other nations, the US embargoes helped bring about the end of apartheid with the election of an all-racial government under President Nelson Mandela in 1994.
