Supreme Court Hears Burma Arguments

U.S. Chamber Says States Can't Set Own Trade Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce today urged the Supreme Court to uphold a lower court's decision that state and local attempts to use trade sanctions against foreign countries are unconstitutional, as Justices heard oral arguments in the case.

In an amicus brief filed in the Andrew S. Natsios v. National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) case, the Chamber challenged a Massachusetts law that imposed economic sanctions on companies doing business in the Union of Myanmar (formerly Burma), because of that country's human rights record.

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts agreed with the Chamber's argument and overturned the law because it interfered with interstate commerce and foreign affairs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the lower court decision. Massachusetts petitioned for Supreme Court review.

"The Constitution clearly delegates the authority to regulate international trade to the Congress," said Robin Conrad, senior vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber's public policy legal arm.

"To allow states to impose a patchwork of countervailing and counterproductive trade regulations is unworkable, no matter how worthwhile the motivation," said Conrad. "The Founding Fathers understood that would lead to commercial chaos and correctly prohibited it. We are asking the Supreme Court to affirm the lower court decision and end the practice forever."

More than twenty states and localities have similar Burma laws. Other states and localities have either considered or adopted trade sanctions targeting companies doing business with an array of countries and territories, including: Switzerland, China, Saudi Arabia, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan, North Korea, Iraq, Morocco, Laos and Vietnam.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

# # #

00-43