Narayan AmmachchiThe United States’ decades-long trade embargo on Cuba has cost the island more than US$130 billion in economic loss, according to an estimate by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
“Eighty percent of Cuba’s residents have lived all their lives under the sanctions,” stated Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the ECLAC, who was speaking at the biennial meeting of the UN agency in Havana last week, according to a report from Reuters.
“This country which welcomes us today (…) is testing its own ways to face the brutal human costs that it has sustained during an unjust blockade,” Barcena continued.
“We evaluate it every year as an economic commission and we know that this blockade costs the Cuban people more than US$130 billion at current prices and has left an indelible mark on its economic structure.”
The United States under President Barack Obama eased the embargo, but current President Donald Trump has tightened travel and trade restrictions again.
Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, most countries around the world started establishing a relationship with the country, but the US continued to impose sanctions. Today, there seems to be no international support for the US embargo on Cuba.
Over the past few years, the UN has often adopted a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the embargo imposed by the United States.
The US expects Cuba to reform its political and economic policies, but the communist administration has been slow in liberalizing the economy, having been afraid of losing its hold on citizens.
Add comment