Economic and Trade Sanctions on Colombia

Will explains to President Bartlet that decertifying Colombia triggers automatic recertification under procedural rules, unleashing economic and trade sanctions as unavoidable political costs. Bartlet erupts in frustration at the bureaucracy blocking this leverage, his plea to land Air Force One underscoring impotence. Garcia Larco sits in tense silence amid the senior staff cabin's confines, the sanctions loom as spectral retaliation against Colombia's drug enforcement failures—no documents appear, just words fueling Bartlet's moral outrage.

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Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S4E19 · Angel Maintenance

Recertified by the Book: Bureaucracy as a Political Straitjacket

The 'economic and trade sanctions' concept operates as a referenced consequence of decertification: Will uses the sanctions as leverage in his explanation, linking statutory mechanics to real economic pain that would follow a different policy choice, thereby illustrating the costs that the President's discretion would trigger.

Before: A potential consequence discussed hypothetically as part of the briefing; not enacted.

After: Remains a contingent policy outcome — rendered moot for now because the recertification will proceed automatically, but still present as a threat in political calculations.

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S4E19 · Angel Maintenance

Bartlet vs. Bureaucracy: The Impossible Decertification

Economic and trade sanctions are invoked as the direct consequence of decertifying Colombia; they function as the deterrent cost Will warns about and as the political calculus that complicates Bartlet's moral impulse to withhold recertification.

Before: A looming, potential policy instrument — theoretical consequence contingent on decertification.

After: Remains a theoretical consequence but is rendered politically unusable in this moment because procedure will automatically recertify Colombia, closing the route that would trigger sanctions.

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