Embargo

An embargo is a government order that halts all trade with a specified country, broader than a targeted sanction and usually covering every commodity, not a single sector.

An embargo is broader than a targeted sanction: rather than restricting one sector or one type of transaction, it aims to stop trade with a country altogether. Commodity embargoes have historically targeted oil in particular, since a government can block its own companies from selling to, or buying from, the embargoed country without needing a complex web of financial rules.

The 1973-74 Arab oil embargo against countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War is the reference case: producers cut output and refused to sell to specific buyers, and the resulting shortage sharply raised the price of crude oil within months. Embargoes tend to hurt the country enforcing them as well, since they usually mean giving up a trading relationship rather than only imposing a cost on the target. See sanctions and commodities.