The US government departments involved in enforcing economic sanctions against other countries do not know whether the measures actually work, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2019) The US government departments involved in enforcing economic sanctions against other countries do not know whether the measures actually work, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Thursday."The Departments of State, Commerce, and the Treasury have assessed sanctions' impacts - for example, on a targeted country's economy or trade," the report said. "But they haven't determined whether sanctions really work - nor are the agencies required to do so."
Treasury and State officials use Intelligence Community assessments to gauge sanctions' impacts, the report noted.
"However agency officials cited several difficulties in assessing sanctions' effectiveness in meeting broader US policy goals, including challenges in isolating the effect of sanctions from other factors as well as evolving foreign policy goals," the GAO said.
Sanctions may also have unintended consequences for targeted countries including negative impacts on human rights or public health and in some studies, larger economic impacts were associated with more unintended consequences, the report warned.
