Economic Retaliation Quotes
There was, well before the American Revolution, a restriction on the importation of British goods into the American colonies. Partially this was to pressure Parliament to stop some of its most repressive lawmaking. But it also supported what had become a very lucrative protectionist monopoly of large American merchants. See {636861}.
The people penalized refers to the American companies who can no longer sell to the sanctioned nation while their foreign competitors do not.
This was one of the blackest marks on the Reagan Presidency. The Congress had voted sanctions against the racist, dictatorial government of South Africa as many other countries had done. However Reagan opposed the sanctions, although he claimed that he opposed apartheid and the general human rights denial of South Africa, he opposed doing anything about it that might change the situation. To many this was like saying one is opposed to marital rape but refusing to pass legislation to make it illegal. Congress, then passed the sanctions bill overriding the President’s veto.
