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The UN, UK, and EU have no sanctions imposed on Cuba [1]. Why has no other country prevented Cuba from "starving to death?" Honest question. Is the United State

by jimmar 2y ago

The UN, UK, and EU have no sanctions imposed on Cuba [1]. Why has no other country prevented Cuba from "starving to death?" Honest question. Is the United States so powerful that our trade is the only thing keeping countries alive? [1] https://globalsanctions.co.uk/region/cuba/ https://globalsanctions.co.uk/region/cuba/

Devasta 2y ago
Secondary sanctions. If your company trades with Cuba, then companies that want to trade with the US also violate the sanctions by trading with you. So even something as basic as opening a bank account in such circumstances isn't possible, as no bank will cut themselves off from the entire worldwide banking system just to provide you an account.
- jimmar 2y ago
  It's a complex issue, for sure, and I admit to not being well informed. I did a quick search, and Biden's administration allowed Cubans to open accounts with U.S. banks, but the Cuban government does not like giving up control. Cuba passed laws "forcing businesses to use Cuban banks for payment" [1]. [1] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article290173099.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas...
- samatman 2y ago
  This is wrong. There are no secondary sanctions against Cuba. Cuba is poor because Cuba is Communist. They can trade with everyone except the United States, if they had anything to trade with. The US sanctions do serve as a wonderful excuse for the Cuban government to blame the poverty they inflict upon their own citizens on the United States. Plenty of gullible people outside the country fall for it as well.
  - Devasta 2y ago
    So if I, as an Irish citizen, decided to start a business that traded with Cuba, US companies would have no legal issues doing business with me?
    - Aloisius 2y ago
      The EU passed a statue (No 2271/96) in 1996 that blunted the US' ability to sanction EU companies for trading with Cuba. The statue gives EU companies the ability to recover damages caused by the Helms-Burton Act. They even threatened to counter-sanction US companies making Title III complaints. The result of multiple countries passing similar blocking statues was that the Helms-Burton Act had been suspended by every President from 1996 until 2019 when Trump decided to reactivate it. According to an EU report on the statue, there have been threats of US legal action, but no mention of any EU company has actually been sanctioned.
- greyvddhb 2y ago
  [flagged]
jmyeet 2y ago
> The UN, UK, and EU have no sanctions imposed on Cuba The US is the 800 pound gorilla in the room here. The US is 90 miles off the coast of Cuba. Cuba once supplied cane sugar to the US. Now we can't of course because it might hurt the corn lobby. Imagine if the EU imposed sanctions on the UK, an island nation just off its coast. You could say "the US is free to trade with the UK" and you'd be correct but do you think for a second it wouldn't be massively damaging to the UK economy?

by jimmar 2y ago

Devasta 2y ago

Secondary sanctions. If your company trades with Cuba, then companies that want to trade with the US also violate the sanctions by trading with you. So even something as basic as opening a bank account in such circumstances isn't possible, as no bank will cut themselves off from the entire worldwide banking system just to provide you an account.

jimmar 2y ago
It's a complex issue, for sure, and I admit to not being well informed. I did a quick search, and Biden's administration allowed Cubans to open accounts with U.S. banks, but the Cuban government does not like giving up control. Cuba passed laws "forcing businesses to use Cuban banks for payment" [1]. [1] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article290173099.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas...
samatman 2y ago
This is wrong. There are no secondary sanctions against Cuba. Cuba is poor because Cuba is Communist. They can trade with everyone except the United States, if they had anything to trade with. The US sanctions do serve as a wonderful excuse for the Cuban government to blame the poverty they inflict upon their own citizens on the United States. Plenty of gullible people outside the country fall for it as well.
- Devasta 2y ago
  So if I, as an Irish citizen, decided to start a business that traded with Cuba, US companies would have no legal issues doing business with me?
  - Aloisius 2y ago
    The EU passed a statue (No 2271/96) in 1996 that blunted the US' ability to sanction EU companies for trading with Cuba. The statue gives EU companies the ability to recover damages caused by the Helms-Burton Act. They even threatened to counter-sanction US companies making Title III complaints. The result of multiple countries passing similar blocking statues was that the Helms-Burton Act had been suspended by every President from 1996 until 2019 when Trump decided to reactivate it. According to an EU report on the statue, there have been threats of US legal action, but no mention of any EU company has actually been sanctioned.
greyvddhb 2y ago
[flagged]

jmyeet 2y ago

> The UN, UK, and EU have no sanctions imposed on Cuba The US is the 800 pound gorilla in the room here. The US is 90 miles off the coast of Cuba. Cuba once supplied cane sugar to the US. Now we can't of course because it might hurt the corn lobby. Imagine if the EU imposed sanctions on the UK, an island nation just off its coast. You could say "the US is free to trade with the UK" and you'd be correct but do you think for a second it wouldn't be massively damaging to the UK economy?