The problem with the use of trade sanctions is that the innocent get hurt. This is particularly so when one economically powerful nation acts against another, and regulations are written in such a way that they have an extraterritorial effect on third nations and their citizens.
The best-known example is of course the decades-old and now-multifaceted US embargo on Cuba. Enshrined in multiple pieces of US legislation it makes not just transactions that directly touch US interests subject to severe penalties, but also extends the risk to companies and individuals acting quite legally under their own country’s laws. The intention was and still is to create uncertainty and to chill international commerce, causing banks and others to de-risk or cut off credit if, in their commercial view, their failure to do so might jeopardise their wider interests and operations in the US.
For the Caribbean the issue of sanctions is likely to become particularly acute if the US ratchets up its trade war with China; Washington and possibly the EU move against Venezuela, and additional trade measures are introduced against Russia.
