Terms of the U.S. Embargo Are Strict

The U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam prohibits Americans from engaging in virtually all forms of commercial relations with that nation. First imposed against the North Vietnamese in 1964 and extended to the entire country in 1975, the sanctions include a freeze on all Vietnamese assets, a ban on financial transactions, travel restrictions and trade prohibitions in all fields except information.

The embargo applies to all Americans wherever they live and U.S. subsidiaries incorporated abroad. Vietnamese-Americans wishing to take money to relatives are restricted to $300 per quarter or $750 to relatives preparing to emigrate. In addition, the law imposes a $200 per day spending restriction on any American in Vietnam. Americans are also prohibited from entering or leaving Vietnam on the state carrier, Air Vietnam.

However, the embargo does not prohibit Americans from visiting Vietnam, meeting with Vietnamese officials, collecting information or even entering into non-binding agreements.

The sanctions are based on the 1917 Trading With the Enemy Act, which allows the President to impose a broad range of economic sanctions to further U.S. foreign policy interests. Other examples include sanctions against Nicaragua and South Africa in 1985, Libya in 1986, Panama in 1988 and the current embargo against Iraq and Kuwait. But the measures against Vietnam constitute the fullest scope of sanctions possible and are similarly imposed only against Cuba, North Korea and Cambodia, according to a U.S. Treasury official.

In 1988, Congress passed one exception to the embargo that allows the exchange of books, records, newspapers, dictionaries and other information. As a result, Cable News Network was allowed to install a satellite dish in Vietnam. Another American, a Maryland entrepreneur, was recently given approval to import books and newspapers from Vietnam.

Violations of the law carry maximum criminal penalties of 12 years in prison and fines of $250,000 for individuals and $1 million for corporations. Treasury officials could not provide statistics on the number of violations. But the most celebrated case involves Lindblad Travel, a Westport, Conn., firm that went bankrupt under the weight of more than $500,000 in fines after pleading guilty last year to arranging tours to Vietnam.

“The U.S. business community really tries to bend over backward to comply with the law, and if there are any questions, your readers should give us a call,” a Treasury official said.