1. America's values and interests are best advanced by sustained involvement in world affairs by both the public and private sectors.
2. The expansion of free market economies and rising living standards are crucial ingredients of political freedom and respect for human rights.
3. Challenges to US interests and the rule of law should be addressed as much as possible in concert with our allies and trading partners.
4. The US Government should adopt a standard of ongoing accountability, so that unilateral foreign policy sanctions are evaluated by:

USA*ENGAGE Principles for Sanctions Reform

1. Congress must take a more deliberative and disciplined approach to U.S. sanctions policy, so that such measures are driven by common sense, instead of being pushed to counter-productive ends by politics and emotion.
2. U.S. sanctions policy is broken and needs to be fixed. Unilateral economic sanctions almost never help the people we want to help and almost always fail to bring about the actions we seek to promote. By acting alone, America only insures that its response is ineffective, since a target country can always circumvent a U.S. unilateral sanction by working with one of our competitors.
3. Unilateral sanctions should be one of the last tools out of America's foreign policy toolbox, not the first. We need to take a harder look at alternatives, such as multilateral pressure on rogue regimes and more effective U.S. diplomacy.
4. The indiscriminate use of unilateral sanctions is undermining America's international competitiveness and economic security. As the Soviet grain embargo showed, unilateral sanctions cause lasting damage to America's reputation as a reliable supplier. U.S. sanctions result in $15 billion to $19 billion annually in lost U.S. exports and deprive American workers of over 200,000 high-wage jobs.
5. Unilateral sanctions should not be used indiscriminately as a one-size-fits-all solution to every international challenge, particularly when they are likely to be (1) counter-productive, (2) ineffective, and (3) costly from the standpoint of U.S. competitiveness.
6. Sanctions reform legislation should be enacted to provide for responsible, common-sense reform of U.S. sanctions policy. Such an approach would:
7. Establish a more disciplined and deliberative process for imposing unilateral U.S. sanctions, including greater consultation between Congress and the Executive Branch and consideration of alternatives, such as multilateral pressure and diplomatic initiatives.
8. Ensure that Congress and the Executive Branch have adequate information about the likely effectiveness and economic and humanitarian costs of a proposed sanction and have conducted a detailed analysis of whether the proposed sanction is the best tool for achieving U.S. objectives.
9. Establish regular reporting and sunset requirements, so that sanctions are terminated unless a continuing justification exists.