'Sanctions Do Not Promote Change, They Inhibit It' - Steve Hanke
Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University claims that the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States of America are what kept former President Robert Mugabe in power for so long.
Hanke said that Mugabe used sanctions to hide his failures. He further asserted that rather than promoting change, sanctions do the opposite.
Writing on microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday, Hanke said:
The US’s ZDERA Act is what kept Mugabe on the throne for so long. Without sanctions, Mugabe would have had no one else to blame for Zim’s economic collapse other than himself. Sanctions do not promote change, they inhibit it.
The United States on Monday announced an extension to ZDERA with another year. A statement issued by the US President Donald Trump reads in part:
The actions and policies of these persons continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, on November 22, 2005, and on July 25, 2008, to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond March 6, 2019. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288.
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