US trade deficit

["Joerg Wenck" <j.wenck@xxxxxx>]

Sifting through old newspapers, I came across an article from a Seattle newspaper dating from the Clinton years. The subject was the US trade sanctions against many nations. An excerpt:
"Boeing executives believe that there are 70 nations currently sanctioned by the United States, and that they will buy $400 billion worth of airplanes over the next 20 years. About $200 billion of those planes will go to countries where Boeing has virtually no chance of making a sale -- in six countries because the sales are explicitly forbidden, and in 12 others because sanctions prohibit Export-Import Bank loan guarantees, according to company spokesman Tim Neale."
Does anyone have a quantitative handle on how big the deficit-enhancing effect of sanctions on US trade might be? We are not just talking high-tech here: the sanctions extend to agriculture as well. While I am not exactly supposing that the US sanctioned away their surpluses of times past, a number of 10-20$ billion in lost exports every year for the airplane industry alone does seem impressive.

Joerg Wenck