In: Economics
Economic embargo generally means any restriction placed by one country with some other country for exchange of goods and services or for some specific goods and services with one or more countries. Mostly the reason of putting such economic embatgoes are political instability or unfavourable relations with other countries. If economic embargoes are applied gradually they might have a chance of succedding as more and more economic embargoes might be applied in future with other countries as the need arises. While applying them suddenly may happen to have a sudden and bad impact on both the countries as ther would be sudden stop in exchange of goods and services and eventually it might lead to drop of such economic embargoes.
At present the U.S. has applied economic embargoes on the countries like Burma, Cuba, Iran, Syria etc. Due to political and economic unstability between these countries the U.S. has fully or partially applied some economic embargoes with these countries.
A restriction to trade with some country might also be applied because of war going on or any other tension going on between the two nations. It is considered to be a very strong economic tool for controlling or enhancing political and economical instability. Thus such restrictions must be applied on some serious thoughts and after a great discussions. The reason for applying such embargoes might also be a threat to national security from another nation ie., it will be applied only if it is in favour of the nation applying it.