Cuba Denounces U.S. Aggressive Escalation at WTO

During a speech before the Trade Negotiations Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ambassador Pedro L. Pedroso questioned the strengthening of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

The White House adopted new measures to tighten the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed almost 60 years ago, with the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, contrary to the principles and purposes of the UN Charter and International Law, he stressed.

This section allows U.S. nationals to sue before the U.S. courts persons and entities, including those from third countries, who invest in Cuban territory in properties nationalized after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.

These punitive measures ‘hinder the normal behavior of my country’s commerce in frank violation of the norms established in this Organization, and harm third countries that wish to trade with Cuba,’ he warned.

Pedroso recalled that for the last 27 consecutive years the international community, almost unanimously, condemned the U.S. blockade and called for its end through successive U.N. General Assembly resolutions.

Despite this campaign against the island, the ambassador affirmed that his nation ‘will guarantee the legal conditions and honor all its commitments in economic matters with its international partners.

Foreign businessmen in Cuba have the backing of Cuban laws, international law and the laws of their own countries, he said.

The diplomat called for an end to ‘the irrational escalation and the policy of hostility and aggression turned into an economic and commercial war’ and to prevent Washington from ‘continuing to trample multilateralism with impunity and trying to return to the law of the jungle.