UN: US Trade Embargo Cost $130 Billion to Cuba

According to the United Nations (UN) agency, US financial and trade embargo on Cuba had cost the country $130 billion USD over nearly six decades. The UN described the embargo as unjust, and the same estimate has been shown by Cuba’s Communist government.

The United States has lost nearly all international support for the embargo since the separation of the Soviet Union, and many US allies join Washington in criticizing Cuba’s one-party system and repression of political opponents.

The UN has already adopted a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the embargo with overwhelming support since 1992. In a report ahead of the vote in 2017, the Carribean country estimated total damage from the embargo at $130 billion USD.

Alicia Barcena, the head of UN’s regional economic body for Latin America, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), told its biennial meeting in Havana, “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.”

Without detailing how much the organization acquired the estimate, she added, “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.”

Background

The embargo, which was agreed after a historic US-Cuba detente in 2014, was eased under the administration of former US president Barack Obama which was fully put into place in 1962.

However, US president Donald Trump tightened travel and trade restrictions—only the US Congress can lift it in full.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in his opening remarks, “Despite the difficulties the Cuban economy is faced with, particularly due to the intensification of the blockade imposed on Cuba, we will continue to focus on the development goals set.”

The meeting was also attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Cuba’s Soviet-inspired economy has grown 2.4 percent on average annually over the last ten years, according to the official statistics. However, the growth is much less than the 7 percent annual growth the Cuban government has forecasted it needs in order to develop.

The county’s hope for increased growth by market reforms introduced in the last decade has borne mixed results. The ruling Communist Party said earlier this year that implementation had been harder than expected.

Barcena stated that UN-ECLAC with support Cuba’s reform program.

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