Date: 6/28/1998

Published In: www.iranian.com

Author/Reporter: Shahriar Afshar

The U.S. government has always maintained that its unilateral trade sanctions
  on countries like Iran are only targeted at the Iranian government and no one
  else. Although the U.S. is mildly concerned that not a single alley supports
  the U.S. Iran containment policy, it is content to continue the sanctions, irrespective
  of its growing collateral damage on the Iranian American community.

  It is no secret that the backing of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee
  (AIPAC) comforts the U.S. Congress in its support of the Iranian sanctions.
  But why is President Clinton supporting an all out trade ban with Iran for U.S.
  companies? Perhaps the Clinton Administration believes that in time, enough
  foreign companies will do business with Iran so as to render the Iranian government
  completely exhausted and hence unable to pursue any objectionable policies.
  Or perhaps the U.S. plans to indefinitely preoccupy the Iranians by making them
  take French, German and Japanese language classes so they can continue signing
  more foreign investment contracts with everyone but the U.S., since many Iranians
  are already fluent in English.

  However, the futility of the U.S. unilateral trade sanctions on Iran is not
  simply measured by the tons of money the U.S. is losing each year, nor the thousands
  of U.S. jobs lost as a result. The U.S. thinks that its trade sanctions
  are hitting the Iranian government with the surgical precision of a "smart
  bomb". If so, then the collateral damage being felt by the Iranian
  American community must be only a mirage and not the "boomerang" effect
  of a bad law.

  There are almost a million Iranian Americans living in the U.S. More Iranians
  reside in California than anywhere else outside of Iran. According to a U.S.
  Immigration and Naturalization Service report, another 4,788 Iranian were naturalized
  as U.S. Citizens in 1996. Iranians were the fifth largest population to be naturalized
  in the U.S. from 1991-1996, totaling over 41,000.

  This growing political voice is a market that earns $4 billion in discretionary
  income annually and spends $460,000 every hour. The U.S. Census Bureau reports
  show some 50.6 percent of Iranians living in the US have a BA degree or higher,
  the median annual income is nearly $36,000, and almost 42 percent hold managerial
  and professional jobs, all above the US national average.

  The U.S. unilateral trade sanctions directed towards the government of Iran
  are having the following impacts on the Iranian American community in the U.S.:

  1. The U.S. Customs office limits how many articles (i.e. Persian Rugs) a person
  may bring back from Iran, perhaps for fear that such goods may be sold for commercial
  purposes abroad and hence, directly enhance the Iranian governments ability
  to pursue its objectionable policies. Unless these would be flying carpets,
  such a leap in logic would surely fail the court's "reasonable person"
  test.

  2. Iranian Americans have been forced to abandon their personal Iranian based
  assets or sever all economic ties with their family business and life's work
  in Iran. To extrapolate, the American dream can only flourish if it originates
  in the US, irrespective of America's tremendously large bi-national population.

  3. By Presidential Executive Order, all U.S. persons are forbidden to engage
  in any new commerce with Iran regardless of the Iranian Americans' unique expertise
  in doing business with Iran above all other countries. Language skills and knowledge
  of doing business in and with their countries of origin may be the only expertise
  many immigrants can bring with them as newly naturalized U.S. citizens.
  Without the application of this marketable quality, given the rapid expansion
  of world trade, first generation Iranian-Americans are forced to start from
  the bottom of the U.S. economic ladder, often doing jobs much below their status
  in Iran. Such a "start from scratch" or trade off for freedom,
  can deal an irrecoverable blow to the human spirit, especially to the middle
  aged. These circumstances are akin to the mental strains that affect a
  U.S. person seeking a new career at 40 or 50, supplemented by language barriers,
  the devaluation of your foreign currency, distance from family members, and
  so on. As such, the U.S. Government has effectively denied its Iranian
  American citizens from the pursuit of happiness. Although this seems marginally
  constitutional, it does question the applicability of the Declaration of Independence
  to all people, except immigrants of sanctioned countries.

  4. Finally, the great public relations machinery of the U.S. Government, in
  its targeting practice on the Iranian government, has effectively made it acceptable
  to alienate Iranian American's under the doctrine of guilt by association, reminiscent
  of the Japanese-American experience of WWII. After twenty years of partial
  separation from the main U.S. population, it is time to settle down with the
  understanding that save for native Americans, everyone in the U.S. is an immigrant.
  It is only a question of when you migrated and how long it will take you to
  grow roots.

  It is a practical impossibility for the US to sanction a nation of 65 million
  and not inadvertently impact any one of its many diverse migrant populations
  within. Imagine if the U.S. suddenly decides to sanction Mexico and bars all
  U.S. persons [Mexican-Americans] from all trade with Mexico. How many Maquiladora
  businesses would be impacted?

How many U.S. jobs will be lost on both sides of the border? How much tax revenue
  would it cost the state and local border economies? Now imagine how such an
  action would divide the country and undermine the natural unity that has existed
  between the people of Mexico and the U.S. for generations? How many families
  would be impacted?

  International trade, as it has been for thousands of years, is not just about
  the exchange of goods or services for money. It is simply the means by which
  we build global relationships, engage in cultural exchanges, and above all we
  expand our horizons. We cannot sanction a entire country, half way across the
  world, and not expect to feel its impact right here in the United States of
  America. The intrinsic severability of persons from their countries of
  origin is not a matter for the U.S. government to impose by mere operation of
  law. Our mutual cultural, economic, and social integration has far too
  advanced to coexist independently.

  Since the 1979 divorce of the American and Iranian governments, Iranian-Americans
  have been orphaned to fend for themselves in political obscurity, add to it
  a national identity crises. It is time for a change in the U.S. policy towards
  Iran and in all fairness, in Iran's public policy towards the U.S. Dialogue,
  trade, and engagement are the gateway into the next millennium for everyone
  on this planet.

Published in the "Iranian Times"

  Shahriar Afshar, is President of the Iranian
  Trade Association, a California non-profit business organization and can be
  reached at Afshar@IranianTrade.org

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