No shortage of controversy surrounds U.S. use of export controls and trade sanctions, especially as the number of unilateral sanctions has surged in the 1990s. This issue of Economic Perspectives examines some of those issues.

Clinton administration officials argue that, despite the cost to U.S. business and the occasional differences with U.S. allies, these tools must be used to contend with international problems like terrorism, narcotics trafficking, weapons proliferation and regional instability.

U.S. use of sanctions and export controls has a long history, dating back to President Jefferson's embargoes aimed at Great Britain and France and even to the time of the American Revolution.

Many U.S. trade laws do not concern foreign policy, of course. They were the subject of the June 1997 issue of Economic Perspectives.