( CNN ) -- By July 20 , a historic deal may be reached to resolve the Iranian nuclear standoff . The choice America will face at that point is whether to lift sanctions on Iran in order to extract valuable and irreversible nuclear concessions from Tehran . Any debate over whether to exchange sanctions for limitations to Iran 's nuclear program , however , would be incomplete at best and misleading at worst if it does not address the cost of this policy . Surprisingly , the U.S. government has not conducted any study to assess the cost of its two decades-long policy of sanctioning Iran . According to our study , based on an econometric gravity model that commonly is used to measure trade patterns , the United States is by far the biggest loser of all nations enforcing sanctions on Iran . From 1995 to 2012 , the U.S. sacrificed between $ 134.7 and $ 175.3 billion in potential export revenue to Iran . These are astonishing numbers . But the human cost is even more surprising . Based on the Department of Commerce 's annual report on jobs supported per billion dollars of exports , this lost export revenue translates into between 51,043 and 66,436 job opportunities lost per year on average . In 2008 alone , as many as 214,657 to 279,389 job opportunities were relinquished . Texas and California are likely the biggest losers in terms of lost job opportunities , due to their size as well as the strength of their industries in areas attractive to the Iranian economy -- oil and gas , automobiles , green energy , and telecommunications to name a few . Yet , these are conservative numbers . The model only captures lost export revenues and does not take into account secondary effects of sanctions such as higher oil prices to the broader U.S. economy . Nor does it account for how lower Iranian GDP and imports -- as a result of sanctions -- further suppresses Iran 's ability to absorb exports from the sanctioning countries . Consequently , the full cost to the U.S. economy is likely even higher than the numbers listed here . America is not alone in losing export revenue and job opportunities as a result of the Iran sanctions . Sanctions cost the EU states more than twice as much as the United States in terms of lost trade revenue between 2010 and 2012 . Germany was hit the hardest , followed by Italy and France . It is not uncommon that cost becomes a secondary factor when devising national security policy . But as American and Iranian diplomats try to negotiate nuclear deal in Vienna together with their EU , Russian and Chinese partners , the question is not whether sanctions have been justified . Rather , the question is whether sanctions should be exchanged for blocking Iran 's uranium and plutonium pathways towards a nuclear weapon . These are pathways , incidentally , that can not be bombed . As former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei famously said , `` You can bomb their facilities , but you can not bomb their knowledge . '' Opponents of a nuclear deal argue that intensified sanctions provide a more effective route to halting Tehran 's nuclear activities . They also fear that sanctions relief will give Iran a get-out-of-jail-free card and enable it to restart its nuclear program at a later stage . The arguments in favor of sanctions , or against a deal that entails sanctions relief , are debatable . In the words of U.S. President Barack Obama , the idea that Iran would simply surrender to American demands due to the economic pressure of sanctions `` does not reflect an honest understanding of the Iranian people or the Iranian regime . '' In addition , continuing sanctions may break the international coalition against Iran . Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have heard directly from Europeans that if a reasonable deal is reached , the EU will not accept the cost of sanctions even if Congress rejects the nuclear deal . It will be Congress , not Europe , that will break the transatlantic coalition by clinging on to sanctions at the expense of a nuclear resolution , the Europeans have said . If the Obama administration in the next few days manages to secure a deal over Iran 's nuclear program , some in Washington will ask whether the deal is good enough to `` give up sanctions . '' But the American public must also ask themselves if the cost of sanctions to the U.S. economy is worth shouldering if other options exist .
A July 20 deadline to reach a permanent deal on Iran 's nuclear program is looming . If a deal is reached , the U.S. will have to decide whether to lift sanctions , authors say . They say the U.S. is the most negatively impacted of the nations imposing sanctions . The report says that if Congress does not act by Sept. 30, it could lead to an economic crisis in Europe and elsewhere.