Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

system and Conpzsional dissatisfaction with the manner in
which the executive branch was dealing with the South African
go-t"s twin policies of intend repdon and regional
d&abibtim. As a d t of this, the Bush administration has
moved tn heal the serious bmch that had developed between
Congress and the Ebxtive branch over South fica by
achWledging that the Act has sent a strong message to South
Afrhn government officials. Herman Cohen, the new Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs, has stated: "Sanctions have
had a v q major impact, I believe, on the development of new
thinZdng in Soufh Africa"' The tone of his statement is a
siptiihnt departure from those of the Reagan -tion,
but it shdd not be interpreted as an enthusiastic embrace of
sanctions, but as a tactic to derail the drive in Congress for
additional sanctions.
The primmy intent of the Anti-Apartheid Act was to express
American outrage over the apartheid sy&m and not to put
undue economic presflw on South Afria. But the Act has
worked to mtrict the importation of certain trade products such
as coal, iron and steel, uranium, textilesf arid agricultural
products. A G m d Accounting Office report concluded that
South African expmb to the United States had decljned $417
&on between the W three qyarters of 1986 and the same
penioa in 1987. And South Africa did not recover these losses
b g h expanding trade ekewhere. One should not exaggerak
the ecmomic impact of the Act, but when combined with other
extend e~lonomic presnws on a stagnating South Ahkan
economyI it has taken its tall, as reflected in statements by South
African govenunent ofkids that political reform may have to be
a precondition for restoring the country's economic linkages to
the infemational mmmunity.
The Act also put a measure of pressure on Ameritran
corporations by prohibiting new investment, but a little noticed
amendment to the Budget lbcctn&tion Act in 1987 sponsored
by Charles Rangel (D-NY) has had more important coxwquenee~
The Ran@ amendment withdrew tax credits for taxes paid by
American corporr!tions to the South Afri- go- This
efkdi~dy raised the rate of taxation from 58% tu 72%. Several
Amerirrrn mpmtions-Mobil Oil, Haylett-Pxh-d, NCR, St Paul