by Christopher Wenk

The Chamber, and the U.S. business community, supports the objectives of the Administration and Congress to address ongoing challenges with Iran. However, portions of the proposed Iran sanctions legislation pending on Capitol Hill (H.R. 2194 and S. 2799) are far too broad in their application and unnecessarily restrict U.S. business transactions wholly unrelated to Iran. Tens of billions of dollars of U.S. commerce that has nothing to do with Iran could be disrupted.

For example:

• Financing and insurance of U.S. business could be seriously disrupted. If Lloyds of London insures a shipping line that has a vessel visit Iran just once, Lloyds is sanctioned, and then U.S. companies would be barred from doing business with Lloyds.
• U.S. oil companies very often engage in joint ventures with foreign enterprises. If a foreign enterprise is sanctioned for doing business with Iran, the legislation mandates that the U.S. company terminate its joint venture, resulting in a forced sale of assets that would harm the U.S. company but do little or nothing to inconvenience Iran.
• Many foreign export credit agencies would be subject to sanctions, and the U.S. Ex-Im Bank would be barred from co-financing major sales with them. As a result, U.S. aircraft manufacturers and other big exporters may lose access to billions of dollars of export credit.

In addition, the bill would limit the President’s discretion in applying sanctions, constraining the executive branch's ability to direct U.S. foreign policy as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution. Now that Senate conferees have been named with House conferees soon to follow, we will continue pressing for changes to the bill to avoid some of the unintended and unforeseen consequences it could have on U.S. companies. In the meantime, Congress should also slow down on unilateral legislation while the Administration is pursuing an Iran resolution in the UN Security Council. A multilateral approach to Iran would be far more effective than a unilateral approach.