The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said Congress currently is considering 37 bills that would impose unilateral economic sanctions of one form or other against a number of countries.

A report by the trade group said 26 bills would specifically target 10 countries while 11 other bills would target unlimited numbers of countries with economic sanctions.

Those bills now pending before Congress are in addition to some 61 US laws and executive actions against 36 countries that have been adopted since 1993, the group said.

A congressional budget analysts said existing economic and trade sanctions have had little impact on the US economy - less than $1 billion a year in lost annual income on an economy approaching $6.6 trillion.

But Arthur Downey, vice president of government affairs at Baker Hughes, a major oil and gas industry serviceprovider, said the booming US economy is masking the long-term impact unilateral sanctions can have on American firms competing in the global economy.

"When the downturn comes we will really feel the loss of markets that are occurring today," he told a news conference.

"Where will be those members of the administration and those members of Congress ... when the pain really gets tough - they're going to forget or they're not going to be there."

Republicans and Democrats have equally used sanctions for foreign policy objects, the trade group said.

The business group argued that unilateral sanctions do not work and only clear the way for competitors from Japan or other countries to pick up the business.

The trade group is pushing for legislation sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, and Representative Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, that would require lawmakers to justify the use of unilateral sanctions before enacting any and require them to be lifted in two years unless Congressvotes to continue them.

A Lugar spokesman said the bill has been picking up more support in recent days and the Senator plans to offer it as an amendment to other legislation pending before the Senate.

Bill Lane, government affairs director for Caterpillar Inc, said US sanctions imposed against India and Pakistan in response to their nuclear weapons testing has sparked fresh interest in the Lugar bill. The United States and Japan imposed sanctions after the tests but others, including Britain, France and China, have refused to go along with economic sanctions.

"The feeling with the India, Pakistan situation is that we have a totally unsustainable situation in the way of sanctions and proof positive that the use of unilateral sanctions don't work," Lane said. He said the sanctions law, enacted in 1994, failed to deter the tests.

The sanctions against India and Pakistan also worry US businesses because the law ties the president's hands on the matter and require an act of Congress to lift them.

At aseparate news conference on Thursday, the US-India Business Council warned that sanctions against India would hurt some US firms.

But the group's chairman-elect, Dean O'Hare, said the business group -- which represents US corporate giants such as Boeing Co, Ford Motor Co -- had no plans to lobby Congress to lift or ease the measures.

"There will not be a lobbying effort," O'Hare told reporters.

"It is too late to lobby. The likelihood of anything occurring with this Congress is little to none."

"We are walking a bit of a tightrope here," O'Hare added. "We want to avoid getting ourselves into a major political debate. We don't see that as our job."

(Reuters)