APRIL 28, 1999
.c The Associated Press April 28
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton is changing U.S. foreign policy to exempt food and medicine from future economic sanctions, a White House official said today.
Under the new policy, commercial licenses to sell agricultural and medicinal products under existing U.S. sanctions -- against Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Sudan -- will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The United States would include items considered ``human necessities'' in future sanctions and embargoes only in cases, for example, where the foreign regime is in armed conflict with the United States or is diverting food and medical supplies to military purposes, the official said.
``This is meant to bring sanctions policy in line with the president's pronouncement last summer that food and medicine should not be used as a tool of foreign policy except under extraordinary circumstances,'' the official said.
Clinton was meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman later today to finalize and announce the policy change.
Last summer, Clinton signed legislation exempting agricultural products from sanctions imposed on Pakistan and India after they conducted nuclear tests.
AP-NY-04-28-99 1046EDT
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
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