Global Biz

Cuba loses $400 million due to embargo: official

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-21 12:11

HAVANA - Cuba lost $400 million in 11 months due to the trade embargo imposed by the United States, Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Orlando Hernandez Guillen said Wednesday.

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From April 2009 to March 2010, the island was not allowed to export goods such as nickel, rum and snuff valued at about $400 million, Guillen said, forcing Cuba to seek intermediate or distant markets because it couldn't directly access the US market.

As for foreign investments in the country, Guillen said that the blockade has prevented investment activities worth over $2.5 million.

"This absurd and immoral policy has not achieved its intended purpose to strangle and destroy the revolution," he said, referring to the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. However, he conceded that the sanctions applied by the United States have taken a great toll on the Cuban population for over half a century.

The embargo against Cuba was imposed by the Eisenhower administration in 1962 in an effort to nip Castro's Cuban Revolution in the bud.

Cuban authorities will present their annual report to the United Nations demanding an end to the economic siege against Havana on October 26.