Timothy O'Toole was quoted regarding his take on the upcoming U.S. presidential election's potential impact on global trade and economic sanctions. With respect to global trade agreements, O'Toole said, "Trump and Sanders seem very skeptical ... of trade agreements," and added that, "Clinton is more in favor of the status quo on trade, although … she's a little critical of some of the trade deals that the administration was in favor of, so maybe a little less pro-trade than the current administration." O'Toole said Clinton's policy on sanctions will likely reflect the current administration's position, which he described as "probably the most bullish on sanctions of perhaps any administration in history. It uses sanctions aggressively throughout the world as an important mechanism in foreign policy. And I think it uses sanctions, in many ways, as an alternative to troops on the ground."

Trump is very vocal about global trade, and while he supports loosening the Cuba embargo, he is critical of the details, O'Toole said. Trump's "criticism of the administration [and its handling of the embargo] is more along the lines of he doesn't think we got a good enough deal in terms of what we exchanged for the loosening of sanctions." On the contrary, O'Toole said that Clinton would represent the status quo on trade issues with respect to Cuba, "continuing the administration's policy, which is one of increasing engagement, dialog and trade with Cuba."

In terms of the Iran sanctions, "I think you're going to see a real split between Democrats and Republicans. Both Clinton and Sanders praised the Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which really didn't loosen the U.S. sanctions against Iran very much from a U.S. perspective; it loosened them with respect to the way the U.S. sanctions applied to the rest of the world," O'Toole said. "Trump was very critical of that deal and would probably try to revisit it if he becomes President."