The U.S. Department of the Treasury has recently published its 2021 Sanctions Review, a Report focusing on the challenges facing U.S. policy on economic sanctions.

While the Report reiterates the success of such sanctions in defending the national security, it emphasizes the need to evolve the sanctions due to new challenges (notably the distrust of foreign economic actors towards the US dollar or the development of cryptocurrencies).

The Report lists five recommendations:

•    Adopting a structured policy framework that links sanctions to a clear policy objective;

•    Incorporating multilateral coordination with US allies, where possible, in order to reinforce sanctions’ impact;

•    Calibrating sanctions to mitigate potential unintended economic, political and humanitarian impact;

•    Ensuring sanctions are easily understood, enforceable and adaptable, including greater cooperation with the private sector; and

•    Investing in modernizing Treasury’s sanctions technology, workforce and infrastructure.

It will be interesting to see how these recommendations will be implemented by US authorities, especially the will to develop coordination with US allies in order to harmonize their respective sanctions.

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