The most important signal of this action is the continuation of the Trump strategy in the trade war and imposing various sanctions to advance the policy of mercantilism of America’s return to the monopoly of power and wealth in the world. But on this side of the field, US-sanctioned or rival countries in the trade war also have not adopted a passive approach, and a review of their experience can further expose the opportunities for coping with this situation and leave it behind.

Russia

The tensions between Russia and the European Union over a decision by Moscow to cut the gas supply to Europe via Ukraine in 2006 was the beginning of a current that led to political tension within Ukraine and Russia’s boycott by the European Union and the United States.

The experience of Russia includes four general strategies in dealing with international sanctions: first, consultation with certain European countries such as Hungary, Italy and Germany to oppose extension of the anti-Russia sanctions over the Ukraine crisis; second, the expansion of Russian influence in the Middle East region to increase the cost of countering or exerting greater pressure on Russia and boosting its bargaining power in the international arena; third, expanding cooperation and business relations with China and economic organizations with bases in East Asia; fourth, using the opportunities created by the oil sales.

The EU’s need for a diversified supply of energy is the most important leverage of Russia to motivate Western European companies to try to reduce sanctions or maintain ties with Russia. Russia’s strategy to counter the sanctions is a combination of expansion of the realm of strategic presence, along with increased reciprocal solidarity; active presence in Syria, an example of the initial strategy and strategic trade link with some influential European and American stakeholders (such as Gerhard Schroeder’s presence in Gazprom company executives) is an example of a second strategy. The strategy of expansion of Russian trade links and engagement is not limited to establishing interdependence on powerful people; internationalization of economic activities in Russia also has a big share and concessions to foreign investors in Russian industrial centres is among such dependencies. But another important initiative by Russia is launching an international financial system similar to SWIFT, with more than 90 banks connected to the network.

Latin America

The concept of Latin America’s dependence was raised in the 1950s and 1960s by Raul Perbisch, an Argentine economist and Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA). The most important consequence of this concept was to cope with the conditions called the centre-periphery thesis which had stabilized a weak trade relationship for Latin American countries, now known as the Doctrine of Unequal Exchange. Some of these countries, such as Cuba, after the alliance with the Soviet Union, were subject to US sanctions, but internal cooperation among countries with a similar stance on the continent enabled them to counter the sanctions.

Turkey

Turkey has advanced the strategy of countering sanctions in two financial and economic channels; the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology, by studying more than 2,000 imported intermediate goods, has begun manufacturing about 30 billion dollars of these goods inside Turkey. In addition, they have designed a mechanism to ensure the following actions:

• Provide price support for domestic products at public tenders
• Support design and implementation of joint projects between industries and different companies
• Increase control measures on the quality of imported goods
• Prevent victimization of domestic producers in an unequal competitive market
• Allocation of free land to domestic producers to develop business within the protected industrial zone
• Accelerate the operation of the investment field.

In financial matters, Turkey has also tried to eliminate the US dollar from its exchanges with Iran and Russia by concluding bilateral or multilateral monetary treaties.

Regional and Trans-Regional Unions

The experience of different countries joining the club of internationally sanctioned countries shows that two general strategies, namely internal consolidation and development of external links play a decisive role in countering sanctions and increasing the flexibility and resilience of the economy. Internally, reforming the business environment by eliminating the incentives for corruption and rent seeking as well as the hurdles on the way of production, along with paying rewards to productive activities and the elimination of any channel of access to resources and benefits based on rentier methods.

Internationally, however, the expansion of ties with other countries, the acquisition of technical know-how and engineering services, even at the individual level to help transfer modern knowledge through the network of citizens living in foreign countries or foreign citizens, along with the creation of stable transnational and regional treaties is a sustainable approach. Meanwhile, the cost of increasing sanctions or joining other countries should go higher. Of course, in the field of regional treaties, the increasing importance of future relations in the sustainability of these treaties is effective. For example, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has faced the problem of ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ due to its individualist approach among its members and regarding no significance for the future and has not been able to fulfil its potentials.