United Nations: Cuba Demands End of US Blockade

For the 19th consecutive year, the UN General Assembly will vote on Tuesday on the resolution demanding that the United States to lift its blockade of Cuba, which has caused the island more then $750 billion in losses, reported Prensa Latina.

The demand is item No. 41 on the General Assembly's agenda, under the heading "The Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba."

In October 2009, 187 of 192 UN member countries voted for the end of the hostile US policy with only three nations voting against that resolution (the United States, Israel and Palau), and two abstentions (Marshall Islands and Micronesia).

The annual report on the blockade presented by Cuba in the General Assembly states that the siege remains intact, with its complex web of laws and legal regulations.

This is also the longest and most unyielding blockade applied by the United States in history against any country, despite being in violation of international law and the UN Charter's purposes and principles.

It is also, in essence and objectives, an act of unilateral aggression and permanent threat against the stability of a country, "a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of a people."

Since 1991, the UN General Assembly has condemned the US blockade of Cuba. Last year, even though many delegates expressed a newfound optimism that United States-Cuba relations could improve with the change of Administration in Washington, the United Nations General Assembly once again adopted a stern resolution calling on the United States to end a trade embargo, which had created human suffering and wrecked havoc with the economy of the island nation.

The resolution against the blockade calls upon all States to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures such as that promulgated in the 1996 “Helms-Burton Act” which carried extraterritorial effects that impacted the sovereignty of other States.

The blockade is an absurd, illegal and morally unsustainable policy that generates shortages and sufferings for people, restricts and slows the development of the country, and seriously damages Cuba's economy, the document says.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said a month ago at the UN General Assembly that US President Barack Obama has shown himself to be unwilling to rectify even the most irrational and universally rejected aspects from his anti-Cuba policy.

There has not been any change in the policy of blockade and subversion against Cuba in the last two years, even though Obama has sufficient prerogatives to produce real change, the Cuban Foreign minister noted. He has called the blockade an “uncultured act of arrogance” that has hampered the development of Cuba’s economy and was also applied to other countries that wanted to carry out business with the Caribbean nation.

The October 26 vote takes place about a month after the Assembly's annual general debate, where heads of state and government as well as foreign ministers from dozens of countries denounced the US siege against the Caribbean island.


http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu

Banks action on Cuban sanctions hits UK companies

By Roland Gribben for the Telegraph
21 October 2010

Lloyds TSB has blocked a bank transfer from Cuba to a UK business that supplies agricultural consultancy services despite the free flow of trade between the Caribbean country and the EU

A small business consultancy has tabled complaints to the Business Secretary and EU authorities accusing Lloyds TSB of breaking the law by refusing to process a cash payment from a Cuban business for £7,156.

Barrie Bain, chairman of Tunbridge Wells-based Fertecon, said yesterday: "I find it astounding that a bank controlled by the state is doing something that is against the law. It is damaging our business and presumably the export efforts of thousands of other small UK companies."

Lloyds has told him the bank has reviewed its approach to dealing with countries subject to government and international sanctions "in order to best protect its customers, its businesses, its people and its reputation."

Keiron Walsh, a senior manager in the bank's commercial department, told Mr Bain: "Unfortunately we are unable to offer you advice on alternative arrangements for your payments."

The block on the bank transfer has thrown into fresh focus changes quietly introduced by banks to avoid falling foul of US regulations over the breach of its trade sanctions against Cuba.

Neither the UK nor the EU has similar blocks on trade with Cuba but the importance of the US market has seen UK banks fall into line.

Lloyds has already felt the full weight of the US regulatory authorities, being forced to pay $350m in January last year after being accused of helping clients in Iran, Libya and Sudan to avoid US sanctions. The sanctions power exercised by the US was also on display when Barclays was fined in August for allegedly breaking US sanctions through business dealings with people linked to Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Sudan. The British bank agreed to pay a $298m fine covering business transactions worth $500m.

The upshot is that Barclays has told customers it no longer handles any business with links with Iran, North Korea, Myanmar or the sanctioned areas of Sudan. "Our sanctions policy also includes a prohibition on transactions involving anyone or any entity on the US, UN [United Nations], UK or EU sanctions list," the bank said.

Lloyds defended its action over the Cuban payment. "Lloyds takes its responsibility with regard to the application of sanctions very seriously and recently reviewed our approach to dealing with countries and entities that are subject to government and international sanctions across the globe in order to best protect our customers, our businesses, our people and our reputation."

Mr Bain, who specialises in providing advice on agricultural markets, particularly fertilisers, and has 95pc of his business overseas has undergone a crash course in trade restrictions since the cheque was blocked a week ago and said his research showed that under the Protection of Trade Interests Act and the EU Blocking Statute "it is illegal to block payments from Cuba".

He has been told by Vince Cable's Business Department that no order has been made under the terms of the Trade Interests Act making it an offence to comply with another country's extra territorial legislation – regulations designed to counter the US restrictions under the terms of the Helms-Burton act in 1996.

But Mr Bain has discovered there is scope for the department to consider an investigation if a complaint is tabled about a bank's refusal to handle a transaction with Cuba.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

How the OFAC Stole Christmas

A spokesman for the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (”OFAC”) told Export Law Blog this morning that discussions between OFAC and the North Pole over Santa Claus’s Christmas Eve itinerary had broken down and were not expected to be resumed before Santa’s scheduled departure on December 24 at 10 pm EST.

The dispute arose from a dilemma that the U.S. sanctions against Cuba posed for Santa’s planned delivery of toys to children in Cuba. If Santa delivers toys for U.S. children first, there will be toys destined for Cuba in the sleigh in violation of 31 C.F.R. § 515.207(b). That rule prohibits Santa’s sleigh from entering the United States with “goods in which Cuba or a Cuban national has an interest.” On the other hand, if Santa delivers the toys to Cuban children first, then 31 C.F.R. § 515.207(a) prohibits the sleigh from entering the United States and “unloading freight for a period of 180 days from the date the vessel departed from a port or place in Cuba.”

A press release from the North Pole announced that the OFAC rules left Santa no choice but to bypass the children of the United States this Christmas. A spokesman from OFAC warned that if Santa attempted to overfly the United States, his sleigh would be forced to land and his cargo seized. He continued:

We know that the outcome is harsh, but we cannot allow Fidel Castro’s regime to continue to be propped up by Santa’s annual delivery of valuable Christmas toys to Cuban children.

Congressional leaders did not return our calls.


http://www.exportlawblog.com/archives/1128

Washington Fines Swiss Bank for Violating Blockade of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 18 (acn) The US government has levied a fine of US $536 million on Credit Suisse Bank, Switzerland’s second largest bank, for carrying out transactions that violate the US blockade of Cuba and helped “enemies” of Washington such as Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma.

The announcement was made by US Attorney General Eric Holder, who said that in the particular case of Cuba, Credit Suisse made 32 electronic transactions to the tune of over $323,000.

In announcing the agreement with the Switzerland-based bank that allowed the US investigators have access to its records, Holder said that “the criminal behaviour of Credit Suisse, because of its implication and complicity, is simply stunning.”

The transactions took place between August 2003 and December 2009 through US financial institutions violating US regulations that label Cuba as a “country that sponsors terrorism.”

In May 2004, the Union of Swiss Banks (UBS), Switzerland’s largest bank, had to pay $100 million after it was fined for allowing countries such as Cuba, Iran, Libya and Yugoslavia to use an international program of the US Federal Reserve to replace old banknotes.

http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu