Raul Castro meets French envoy sent by Sarkozy (favors end of embargo)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Raul Castro meets French envoy sent by Sarkozy
Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:33pm IST
By Jeff Franks

HAVANA (Reuters) - French envoy Jack Lang met with Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday as France moved to improve relations with the Communist island in hopes of steering it toward political openness and rapprochement with the United States.

Lang, dispatched to Cuba by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said he and Raul Castro talked for two hours in what he said was a "direct and friendly" climate between two countries that had strained relations in recent years.

France, said Lang, wanted to be "the motor" pushing dialogue between Cuba and other parts of the world, but particularly the United States, which has imposed a trade embargo since 1962 against the island nation 90 miles (144 km) from its shores.

U.S. President Barack Obama represents "an important political change" that could bring an end to 50 years of hostilities with Cuba, he said.

"We want to substitute a climate of cooperation for confrontation," Lang said. "I'm very happy to think that we are living in a time when perhaps the end of the embargo will come."


Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-38225520090226

[Tempest]

1. Why should any country honor the U.S. embargo?

It's not like the U.S. has the power to punish any countries now.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's complex, and fiendish! Companies in other countries can't sell any of their products to Cuba

if they have even one tiny component with a copyright for anyone in the United States. It means so many kinds of hospital equipment like dialysis machines, cancer treatment and diagnostic equipment, electronic products, on and on and on through an enormous list can't be sold by those companies in those countries to Cuba.

It also means no ship from any of those countries which would take merchandise to Cuba to sell there can't go 90 miles and use any American port for six months after it sells to Cuba. This clearly cancels out a ton of business Cuba would otherwise be able to use productively for the well being of its own citizens.

There are other aspects, but two pieces of legislation, the Torricelli act, and the Helms-Burton were protested internationally when they were created, and were deemed absolutely contrary to international law, but no one has decided to formally move against them.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Fortunately

that has no affect on the bundles of Euros which Cuba earns from tourism from us Europeans.

[excess_3]

3. none do

what are you taking about?

[Tempest]

4. See Judi's post above yours

Now, you were saying?

[excess_3]

6. you've never heard of trans-shipment?

c'mon.
Cuba gets anything
Fidel/Raul wants

[Tempest]

8. Make sure Judi doesn't see your posts

She'll tear you apart without breaking a sweat.

[Mika]

12. It works like this...

Because of the US's Helms-Burton law (the predominant arm of the embargo), Bayer AG has to choose between the US market, or the Cuban market. Bayer cannot sell to both, according to the US extra territorial sanctions on Cuba. If a company sells its products in Cuba they are banned from doing so in the US (without a special permit).

Yes, Cuba could purchase products from 3rd party resellers, but that increases the prices so exorbitantly that Cuba's small Caribbean island economy cannot afford it. The sanctions have been targeted specifically to destroy Cuba's economy.

The sanctions are not against countries. They are against corporate trade with Cuba.

[excess_3]

13. is that what really happens?

suppose shipment costs double.
does that explain the situation in Cuba?

I don't think so,
but that is just my opinion.

Ciao

[Mika]

14. That doesn't explain that Cubans have a better social safety net than the US.

It is despite the US sanctions that Cubans are still capable of creating world class universal education and health care for all Cubans.


Kudos to the Cuban people.

[Judi Lynn]

17. There's no question the additional expense makes a lot of things out of reach

for a country struggling under the burden of economic warfare from a powerful one. There's far more than enough to substantiate the fact Cuba has had to pay horrendous amounts of money getting shipment from great distances from countries willing and able to do business with Cuba, like rice from Viet Nam. Astounding, crippling costs to a country with very limited means, clearly, just as any island is, only far worse due to the pounding from the embargo.

Their hardship has only firmed their resolve, and brought them closer together.

[Judi Lynn]

19. I just saw Bayer's name in an article on the embargo:

~snip~
When the Torricelli Act took effect, contracts valued at over
$100 million with Argentine subsidiaries of Continental Grain, in
New York, and Cargill, in Minnesota, for products such as wheat,
soy, beans, peas and lentils had to be canceled. The U.S. market is
obviously one of the most competitive in terms of production of
various types of foods.According to several studies,the average cost
of importing grains coming from U.S. suppliers, including trans-
portation charges,is $130 (US) per metric ton,substantially cheap-
er than importing the grain from Europe,which would cost around
$270.
6
This means, for example, that in 1997 the added cost for
Cuba of importing beans was $24 million (US) dollars, and for
importing wheat flour it is $7.8 million each year.
Likewise, restrictions imposed on shipping by sea raised trans-
portation costs of food by 30 percent with respect to international
rates and lengthened delivery cycles of goods to the people. Thus,
for example,a New Zealand company that manufactures powdered
milk declined to supply 1,500 metric tons in the face of refusal on
the part of their shipping company to deliver the cargo to Cuban
ports.Overall,it is estimated that in 1998,the added cost of import-
ing essential foods,given the lack of access to U.S.markets,reached
$30 million,
7
which represented approximately 2 percent of exports
that year and substantially reduced the global import budget. This
figure is equivalent to 15,000 tons of powdered milk that Cuban
children never received.
The impact on availability of food was not limited exclusively to
direct importation of foodstuffs but also exerted considerable effect
on the already weakened agro-industrial sector.The productivity of
the agricultural and farming sector was severely hampered by the
prohibition on selling items such as pesticides, fertilizers, animal
feed, and fuel.
Two well-known cases were those of Bayer AG of Germany and
Sanachem of South Africa.Bayer canceled sales of the pesticide Sen-
cor because the company transferred production of the active ingre-
dient to a plant in Kansas City.Bayer requested permission from the
United States to continue exporting to Cuba, but permission was
denied.In 1997,Dow Chemical bought the shares of the Sentrachem
group of South Africa, owner of Sanachem, with which Cuba had
enjoyed stable trading relations since 1992.In 1997 a Cuban import
firm had purchased pesticides valued at $82 million from Sanachem,
yet after that acquisition the U.S. Treasury Department put an end
to business dealings between the two companies, refusing even to
grant a license to cover the shipment of products that were in
transit.
The human costs due to impact on the health sector are even
more obvious and dramatic if we consider that U.S.companies pro-
duce more than 50 percent of important new drugs on the interna-
tional market and that 90 percent of patents on new biotechnology
products are granted to U.S.firms.Many of these products are vital
to saving human lives and have no equivalents made in Cuba.After
Torricelli, fourteen subsidiaries based in Germany, Sweden, Japan,
France,Argentina,Italy,Australia,the Netherlands,Canada,Belgium
and Switzerland that produce medicines and medical equipment
stopped selling to Cuba.
Cuba is forbidden to buy, from U.S. companies or subsidiaries,
products such as third-generation antibiotics, medicines and drugs
used in postoperative pediatric cardiology and to treat infantile
leukemia,modern cancer therapies,and medications for the relief of
side effects, for the treatment of AIDS, and others. Cuba is also
denied the ability to purchase equipment and replacement parts for
donated equipment, as is the case of Kobe dialysis equipment, used
with persons requiring transplants.

More:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:7de-Ulga7VAJ:muse.jhu.edu/demo/logos/v003/3.4hidalgo.pdf+Cuba+embargo+effect+European+Canadian+trade+impact&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=19&gl=us&client=firefox-a

[dipsydoodle]

7. That's not quite true

Obama has yet to rescind action against companies based in Europe who deal with Cuba and also have US interests.

[Tempest]

10. Has any of those actions hurt the companies?

Or is it merely symbolic?

[dipsydoodle]

11. Well I'm not sure whether or not

they want to run the gauntlet. I think one of the parties most affected is in actual fact banks.

[Billy Burnett]

15. The parties most affected are the Cuban people.

example:

Health Study Faults Cuba Embargo

The tightening of the U.S. embargo against Cuba in 1992 has had a devastating impact on the health of ordinary Cubans, with patients often denied essential drugs and doctors working without adequate equipment, according to a new report.

The study by the Washington-based American Association for World Health says the impact has been particularly severe on women, children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

"Our medical delegation found the tightening of the embargo has had unintended consequences on the health of the Cuban people, including unnecessary suffering and deaths," said Peter Bourne, chairman of the group's board and a former top adviser on health issues to President Jimmy Carter.

The State Department quickly challenged the report, saying Cuba had other trading partners and the condition of its health system reflected its own national priorities. "If there's a finger to be pointed about why the Cuban people don't have adequate medical supplies, it should be pointed directly at Fidel Castro," a spokesman said.

Bourne said Cuba cannot get spare parts for the U.S. equipment it has. The 1992 law tightening the embargo included a ban on trade with Cuba by U.S. subsidiaries in third countries. "We witnessed kidney dialysis, X-ray, respirators, incubators and other lifesaving machinery standing idle for want of U.S.-produced spare parts," Bourne said.

News Services c Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

Interesting to see more concern for corporate interests by some here. :eyes:

[dipsydoodle]

16. There are no concerns

for corporate interests here of which I'm aware. There are merely some observations of the effect of the embargo on the Cuban people in terms of supply of goods from , for example , the EU who have no sanctions against Cuba. My mention of banks was simply because currently if a bank has company x as a customer and that customer is found to be overriding the US embargo then reciprocal action can be taken by the US against that bank.

And , if you know the tune , then Don't Roll Those Big Brown Eyes At Me. :)

[Judi Lynn]

18. I think there's a little bit of an answer to your question in this article:

The Effects of the US ’Embargo’ Against Cuba
Tuesday 7 October 2003 by Rémy HERRERA

~snip~
The normative content of this embargo -specially the extraterritoriality of its rules, which intend to impose on the international community unilateral sanctions by the United States, or the denial of the right of nationalization, through the concept of "traffic"- is a violation of the spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter and of the Organization of American States, and of the very fundamentals of international law. This excessive extension of the territorial jurisdiction of the United States is contrary to the principle of national sovereignty and to that of non-intervention in the internal choices of a foreign states - as recognized in the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice. It is opposed to the Cuban people’s rights to auto-determination and to development. It also contradicts strongly the freedom of trade, navigation, and movement of capital, all that the United States paradoxically claims everywhere else in the world. This embargo is moreover illegitimate and immoral because it attacks the social benefits realized by Cuba since years and imperils their successes -recognized by many international independent observers (in particular those of the WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF and many NGO). They are its public systems of education, research, health or culture, in plain exercise of human rights. Furthermore, the threat that this coercive operation poses for U.S. nationals and for foreigners extends the practical impact of the embargo to domains completely or partially excluded from the texts, such as food, medicines or medical equipment and exchanges of scientific information.

The harmful economic effects of the embargo

From an official Cuban source , the direct economic damages caused to Cuba by the U.S. embargo since its institution would exceed 70 billion dollars. The damages include: i) the loss of earnings due to the obstacles to the development of services and exportations (tourism, air transport, sugar, nickel; ii) the losses registered as a result of the geographic reorientation of the commercial flows, (additional costs of freight, stocking and commercialization at the purchasing of the goods…); iii) the impact of the limitation imposed on the growth of the national production of goods and services (limited access to technologies, lack of access to spare parts and hence early retirement of equipment, forced restructuring of firms, serious difficulties sustained by the sectors of sugar, electricity, transportation, agriculture…); iv) the monetary and financial restrictions (impossibility to renegotiate the external debt, interdiction of access to the dollar, unfavourable impact of the variation of the exchange rates on trade, risk-country, additional cost of financing due to U.S. opposition to the integration of Cuba into the international financial institutions…); v) the pernicious effects of the incentive to emigration, including illegal emigration (loss of human resources and talents generated by the Cuban educational system…); vi) social damages affecting the population (concerning food, health, education, culture, sport…).

If it affects negatively all the sectors , the embargo directly impedes -besides the exportations- the driving forces of the Cuban economic recovery, at the top of which are tourism, foreign direct investments (FDI) and currency transfers. Many European subsidiaries of U.S. firms had recently to break off negotiations for the management of hotels, because their lawyers anticipated that the contracts would be sanctioned under the provisions of the "Helms-Burton law". In addition, the buy-out by U.S. groups of European cruising societies, which moored their vessels in Cuba, cancelled the projects in 2002-03. The obstacles imposed by the United States, in violation of the Chicago Convention on civil aviation, to the sale or the rental of planes, to the supply of kerosene and to access to new technologies (e-reservation, radio-localization), will lead to a loss of 150 million dollars in 2003. The impact on the FDI is also very unfavourable. The institutes of promotion of FDI in Cuba received more than 500 projects of cooperation from US companies, but none of them could be realized - not even in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry, where Cuba has a very attractive potential. The transfer of currencies from the United States is limited (less than 100 dollars a month per family) and some European banks had to restrain their commitment under the pressure of the U.S. which let them know that indemnities would be required if the credits were maintained. In Cuba, the embargo penalizes the activities of the bank and finance, insurance, petrol, chemical products, construction, infrastructures and transports, shipyard, agriculture and fishing, electronics and computing…, but also for the export sectors (where the U.S. property prevailed before 1959), such as those of sugar, whose recovery is impeded by the interdiction of access to the fist international stock exchange of raw materials (New York), of nickel, tobacco, rum…

The harmful social effects of the embargo

The U.S. government’s announcements intimating that it would be favourable to the relaxation of the restrictions concerning foodstuffs and medicines went unheeded and cannot hide that Cuba has been the victim of a de facto embargo in these domains. The reduction of the availability of these types of goods exacerbates the privation of the population and constantly threatens its dietary security, its nutritional stability and its health. A humanitarian tragedy -which seems to be the implicit objective of the embargo- has been avoided only thanks to the will of the Cuban state to maintain at all costs the pillars of its social model, which guarantees to everyone, among others, a staple food for a modest price and a free consumption in the crèches, schools, hospitals, and homes for the elderly. That is the reaffirmation of the priority given by the authorities to the human development, which explains the established excellence of the statistical indicators of Cuba concerning health, education, research, culture… and this despite the extremely limited budgetary resources and the numerous problems resulting from the disappearance of the Soviet bloc. However, the continuation of the social progress in Cuba is impaired by the effective extension of the embargo.

The pressures exerted by the U.S. Departments of State and Trade on the suppliers of Cuba have concerned a wide range of goods necessary for the health sector (medicines destined for pregnant women, laboratory products, radiology equipment, operating tables and surgery equipment, anaesthetics, defibrillators, artificial breathing apparatuses, dialysis apparatuses, pharmaceutical stocks…) and went as far as to prevent the free supply of food for new-born babies and of equipment for unities of paediatric intensive care . The production capacities of vaccines conceived by Cuba are hampered by the frequent lack of spare parts and of essential components that have to be imported, as well as water treatment centres. This embargo provokes today an unjustified suffering of the Cuban people. The shortages affecting many medicines, which are not produced in Cuba, complicate the immediate and complete implementation of the procedures of treatment of breast cancer, leukaemia, cardiovascular or kidney diseases, and HIV for example. Moreover, the U.S. authority’s infringements on individual freedom of movement and scientific knowledge… (restrictions on travel of U.S. researchers, the disrespect of bilateral agreements on Cuban researcher’s visas, refusal to grant software licences or to satisfy the orders from Cuban libraries of books, magazines, diskettes or CD-Rom of specialized scientific literature…) have in fact led to the extension of the embargo to areas formally excluded from it by the law. One of the most fruitful opportunities to develop cooperation between nations on a solidary and humanist basis is therefore blocked.

The embargo is also in contradiction with the principles of the promotion and protection of human rights, which are desired by the U.S. people for themselves and for the rest of the world.

http://www.alternatives.ca/article876.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Assitance for people laboring under the belief the embargo does no harm to Cuba:

"Denial of Food and Medicine:
The Impact Of The U.S. Embargo
On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba"
-An Executive Summary-
American Association for World Health Report
Summary of Findings
March 1997

After a year-long investigation, the American Association for World Health has determined that the U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As documented by the attached report, it is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba. For several decades the U.S. embargo has imposed significant financial burdens on the Cuban health care system. But since 1992 the number of unmet medical needs patients going without essential drugs or doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment-has sharply accelerated. This trend is directly linked to the fact that in 1992 the U.S. trade embargo-one of the most stringent embargoes of its kind, prohibiting the sale of food and sharply restricting the sale of medicines and medical equipment-was further tightened by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens. Cuba still has an infant mortality rate half that of the city of Washington, D.C.. Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system. The crisis has been compounded by the country's generally weak economic resources and by the loss of trade with the Soviet bloc.

Recently four factors have dangerously exacerbated the human effects of this 37-year-old trade embargo. All four factors stem from little-understood provisions of the U.S. Congress' 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (CDA):

1. A Ban on Subsidiary Trade: Beginning in 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban has severely constrained Cuba's ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. Moreover, recent corporate buyouts and mergers between major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have further reduced the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba.

2. Licensing Under the Cuban Democracy Act: The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed in principle to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons to mitigate the embargo's impact on health care delivery. In practice, according to U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so arduous as to have had the opposite effect. As implemented, the licensing provisions actively discourage any medical commerce. The number of such licenses granted-or even applied for since 1992-is minuscule. Numerous licenses for medical equipment and medicines have been denied on the grounds that these exports "would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."

3. Shipping Since 1992:The embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after delivering cargo to Cuba. This provision has strongly discouraged shippers from delivering medical equipment to Cuba. Consequently shipping costs have risen dramatically and further constricted the flow of food, medicines, medical supplies and even gasoline for ambulances. From 1993 to 1996, Cuban companies spent an additional $8.7 million on shipping medical imports from Asia, Europe and South America rather than from the neighboring United States.

4. Humanitarian Aid: Charity is an inadequate alternative to free trade in medicines, medical supplies and food. Donations from U.S. non-governmental organizations and international agencies do not begin to compensate for the hardships inflicted by the embargo on the Cuban public health system. In any case, delays in licensing and other restrictions have severely discouraged charitable contributions from the U.S.

Taken together, these four factors have placed severe strains on the Cuban health system. The declining availability of food stuffs, medicines and such basic medical supplies as replacement parts for thirty-year-old X-ray machines is taking a tragic human toll. The embargo has closed so many windows that in some instances Cuban physicians have found it impossible to obtain life-saving medicines from any source, under any circumstances. Patients have died. In general, a relatively sophisticated and comprehensive public health system is being systematically stripped of essential resources. High-technology hospital wards devoted to cardiology and nephrology are particularly under siege. But so too are such basic aspects of the health system as water quality and food security. Specifically, the AAWH's team of nine medical experts identified the following health problems affected by the embargo:

1. Malnutrition: The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies. In addition, food shortages were linked to a devastating outbreak of neuropathy numbering in the tens of thousands. By one estimate, daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.

2. Water Quality: The embargo is severely restricting Cuba's access to water treatment chemicals and spare-parts for the island's water supply system. This has led to serious cutbacks in supplies of safe drinking water, which in turn has become a factor in the rising incidence of morbidity and mortality rates from water-borne diseases.

3. Medicines & Equipment: Of the 1,297 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 889 of these same medicines - and many of these are available only intermittently. Because most major new drugs are developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals, Cuban physicians have access to less than 50 percent of the new medicines available on the world market. Due to the direct or indirect effects of the embargo, the most routine medical supplies are in short supply or entirely absent from some Cuban clinics.

4. Medical Information: Though information materials have been exempt from the U.S. trade embargo since 1 988, the AAWH study concludes that in practice very little such information goes into Cuba or comes out of the island due to travel restrictions, currency regulations and shipping difficulties. Scientists and citizens of both countries suffer as a result. Paradoxically, the embargo harms some U.S. citizens by denying them access to the latest advances in Cuban medical research, including such products as Meningitis B vaccine, cheaply produced interferon and streptokinase, and an AIDS vaccine currently under-going clinical trials with human volunteers.

http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html