EMBARGO

An embargo is a formal policy by a government to prevent the movement of exports either out of its own ports or into another country. It differs from a boycott in that it only involves the interruption of exports, not other financial or commercial transactions. A civil embargo is directed against one's own shippers to prevent them from shipping vital materials to warring nations. A hostile embargo is directed against the economic well-being of a foreign power.

Because of the central role of the U.S. economy in global trade, the United States frequently uses embargoes as effective, nonviolent tools of foreign policy. Although the United States declared its neutrality when Great Britain and France went to war in the early 1800s, both of the warring countries blocked U.S. merchant ships. And in 1807 a British warship killed three U.S. citizens while forcing four British-born "deserters" to rejoin the British Navy. In response, President Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) convinced Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807, which banned all U.S. ships from trading in foreign ports. French and British ships continued to attack U.S. ships, however, and the damaging affects on the U.S. economy forced Jefferson to repeal the embargo in 1809. When Great Britain continued violating U.S. neutrality and commandeering U.S. sailors, Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1812 to block all trade between the United States and Great Britain.

During the American Civil War (1861–1865) the Confederacy considered placing an embargo on cotton shipments to Great Britain, to force Great Britain to enter the war as an ally. The Confederate Congress never passed the embargo, but Confederate state governments and individual citizens imposed a voluntary embargo on cotton exports to England. The British remained neutral throughout the war, and the Southern economy suffered greatly from the North's embargo on exports to the South.

In 1941 the United States imposed an embargo on German, Italian, French, and Danish ships in U.S. ports before it was finally forced to enter World War II (1939–1945) after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. As a member of the United Nations, the United States used embargoes against North Korea and China during the Korean War (1950–1953), against Iraq after the Gulf War (1991), and against the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In June 1960 President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) imposed the longest-running embargo in U.S. history by blocking all exports (except food and medicine) to Cuba because of Fidel Castro's (1926–) hostile actions against U.S. interests.

See also: Embargo Act, OPEC Oil Embargo

embargo , prohibition by a country of the departure of ships or certain types of goods from its ports. Instances of confining all domestic ships to port are rare, and the Embargo Act of 1807 is the sole example of this in American history. The detention of foreign vessels has occurred more often, either as an act of reprisal designed to coerce diplomatic redress, or in contemplation of war with the country to which the vessels belonged. Embargoes on goods, however, are far more common. Although an embargo can cripple a nation's economy, the use of an embargo alone has typically failed to achieve the goal its imposition was intended to secure.

The United States has used embargoes for both economic and strategic purposes. An example of the former was the prohibition of gold bullion exports in 1933, while the latter is seen in the embargo placed on certain war materials in 1940. An embargo may also be used as a political device. Thus, in 1912 the president was empowered to forbid the export of munitions to Latin America. The Neutrality Act of 1936 gave the president a similar power with regard to warring nations anywhere.

Embargoes were authorized as a form of sanction by the Covenant of the League of Nations, and were applied against Paraguay in 1934 in the Chaco dispute (see Gran Chaco ) with Bolivia, and against Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia (1935-36). Article 41 of the United Nations Charter permits embargoes in cases of military aggression, and during the Korean War, the United Nations called upon its members to refrain from sending arms and strategic materials to territory controlled by the North Koreans and Chinese.

In 1960, the United States imposed an embargo of all goods, excluding food and medicine, on Cuba, and in 1962 the Organization of American States , amid great controversy, established its own Cuban trade embargo (since abandoned). Since the 1970s, economic sanctions of this sort have increasingly been used by the United States and the United Nations against nations that disturb peaceful relations, such as Iraq (imposed in 1990; exemption to sell oil in order to buy food and medicine granted in 1996) or Yugoslavia (imposed in 1992; eased in 1995 with removal tied to compliance with the Dayton Accords; new embargoes imposed by NATO during the Kosovo crisis in 1999); or against nations that have maintained white minority governments, such as Rhodesia (in the 1970s) or South Africa (in the 1980s).

embargo, a temporary arrest or injunction laid on ships or cargo to prevent their arrival or departure in time of war. An embargo can be general, affecting all ships of whatever nationality, or partial, in which only ships of certain nationalities are affected. Originally embargoes could be declared in anticipation of a declaration of war, a method used by many nations to detain ships belonging to the enemy that might be in port. However, in the Hague Convention of 1907, a clause laid down that it was desirable that ships in an enemy port on the outbreak of war should be allowed to depart freely but did not make it binding on the belligerent. A ship stopped by embargo may not be confiscated but only detained without compensation, and must be restored to its owners after the war. It was customary to give a respite to enemy merchant ships to leave port on the outbreak of war so that neither ship nor cargo is subject to embargo.

em·bar·go / emˈbärgō/ • n. (pl. -goes) an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country: an embargo on grain sales. ∎  an official prohibition on any activity. ∎ hist. an order of a state forbidding foreign ships to enter, or any ships to leave, its ports. • v. (-goes, -goed) [tr.] (usu. be embargoed) impose an official ban on (trade or a country or commodity): the country has been virtually embargoed by most of the noncommunist world. ∎  officially ban the publication of: documents of national security importance are routinely embargoed.

embargo n. pl. -oes
1. an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country: an embargo on grain sales | the oil embargo of 1973.

2. an official prohibition on any activity.

3. an order of a state forbidding foreign ships to enter, or any ships to leave, its ports.
v. -oes, -oed
1. (usually be embargoed) impose an official ban on (trade or a country or commodity): the country has been virtually embargoed by most of the noncommunist world.

2. officially ban the publication of: documents of national security importance are routinely embargoed.

3. archaic seize (a ship or goods) for state service.

EMBARGO

A proclamation or order of government, usually issued in time of war or threatened hostilities, prohibiting the departure of ships or goods from some or all ports until further order. Government order prohibiting commercial trade with individuals or businesses of other specified nations. Legal prohibition on commerce.

The temporary or permanentsequestrationof the property of individuals for the purposes of a government, e.g., to obtain vessels for the transport of troops, the owners being reimbursed for this forced service.

embargo prohibitory order on the passage of ships; suspension of commerce, etc. XVI (inbargo). — Sp., f. embargar arrest, impede :- Rom. *imbarricāre, f. IM-1 EM1 + barra BAR1.

embargo Obstruction of the movement of cargo to prevent its delivery. In modern terms, it refers to complete suspension of trade with a country or withholding crucial goods.

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