US blockade causes $1 billion loss to Cuba
HAVANA — Speaking at the Mexico-Cuba mixed commission meeting on September 19, Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina said US pressures caused close to $US1 billion in losses for the Cuban economy this year.
Last June, the Cuban Foreign Ministry presented a report to the United Nations detailing Washington's attempts to block business deals between Cuba and interests in third countries. According to the report, the United States tried to stop the sale of Colombian oil to Cuba and foreign ventures on the island dedicated to oil prospecting.
Washington also tried to block exports of Latin American and European raw materials to Cuba for the production of cosmetics and perfumes, trade with Honduran enterprises and the extraction of Cuban nickel by Canadian interests.
US pressures sparked a sharp fall in the sale of Cuban pacemakers to Australia and Sweden. Mexican foreign minister Manuel Tello Macias said his government would again vote to condemn the US blockade in the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session.
[From Radio Havana.]