Are Sanctions Effective under the Global Mechanism of Middle Trade Brokers?

https://www.rozen-bakher.com/timeline-risks/30/09/2022/0247

Published Date: 30 September 2022 at 02:47




30 September 2022 at 02:47. USA is already overused the sanctions tool, so if USA will start to impose secondary sanctions against firms and individuals that serve as middle trade brokers of export & import, then USA takes the risk that at some point, firms and individuals will ignore these sanctions by stopping working with USA and even with the West if these sanctions will be applied to USA allies. To understand why it will happen, I need to explain the nature of international trade. Always, regardless of sanctions, the mechanism of international trade is based inherently on middle trade brokers, namely a firm X from country A imports goods from country B and then exports them to a firm Y from country C and then firm Y exports them to firm Z from country D, thereby, this path trade could have many hands until reaching the final destination, and because of this nature of international trade, it is easy to bypass sanctions, especially if someone plans sophisticated path trade. Thus, if we look at the level of secondary sanctions. then it is very difficult to identify in a path trade which firms intentionally are involved in bypassing sanctions and which are not. Importantly, this nature of international trade explains why it is easy to bypass sanctions, especially if the path trade includes many trade brokers which is usually the case. Perhaps, the nature of international trade explains why the sanctions tool is doomed to fall. Therefore, USA is taking a big risk in creating antagonism against her by the players in the global market in a way that the players will prefer to not deal with the USA, namely to work with the East over the West.


Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher

Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher

Researcher in Risks for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and International Trade

Political Risks, Economic Risks, Strategic Risks

https://www.rozen-bakher.com/
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