Word: embargoing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Europeans also believe that Reagan refused to invoke the only effective economic sanction against Moscow, an embargo of U.S. grain, simply because he did not want to hurt American farmers. Nonetheless, they complain, the President expects the allies to ban the export of high technology to the U.S.S.R. and shelve plans for building a 3,000-mile natural-gas pipeline from Siberia to West Germany. "These measures would be much more costly to us than anything the U.S. has done," insists a French official. "If the U.S. were to cut off grain sales, then perhaps it could ask Europe...
Farmers are among the loudest skeptics. They fear that Reagan will go further and impose a new embargo on grain shipments, which would swell the U.S. agricultural surplus and depress farm prices and incomes. Their concern stems from their bitter experience with the embargo that President Carter declared two years ago after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Says Jared Hoover, who farms 1,400 acres outside Abilene, Kans.: "I can understand suspending talks on a new agreement with Moscow. But we should have enough history under our belts to teach us a lesson. Despite Carter's embargo, the Russians...
...current grain pact, which allows Moscow to buy up to 23 million metric tons a year, expires in September. If it is not renewed, the Soviets might suffer severe food shortages next winter. But soon they would undoubtedly line up alternate grain suppliers as they did during the last embargo. That might have a lasting negative impact on U.S. farm exports. Says John Dunbar, Dean of Agriculture at Kansas State University: "Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Australia would all like long-term deals with Moscow. If we are perceived as an unreliable supplier, a lot of our former business with...
Sanctions often ultimately strengthen rather than weaken their intended victim. The U.N. embargo of Rhodesia, which began in 1966, spurred that country to improve greatly its own domestic manufacturing capacity. Some scholars believe that the same thing could happen in the Soviet Union. Says Robert L. Paarlberg, a professor of political science at Wellesley: "Sanctions might stimulate the Soviets to develop more indigenous technological capabilities that might in the long run strengthen the Communist state...
Equally important is what Reagan did not do. He did not embargo the sale of grain to the Soviets, which could have dealt the U.S.S.R. a real economic blow. The Soviet Union is suffering its third poor harvest in a row (this year's grain crop will be the smallest since 1975), and received 50% of its grain imports from the U.S. in 1981. Blocking the sale would have been politically damaging for Reagan: in April he lifted the grain embargo that Carter had imposed after the Afghanistan invasion; the farm bill passed last month might require the Administration...