Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that the blockade impacts key sectors of the economy, including healthcare, education, transportation and construction, among other public services in high demand by the Cuban population.
HAVANA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Thursday denounced the six-decade U.S. trade embargo as causing economic losses of more than 5 billion U.S. dollars between March 2023 and February 2024.
A report, titled "Need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," outlined the latest damage tally caused by U.S. sanctions on the island's economy.
Cuba issues the report annually before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) vote on a draft resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, which Cuba calls a blockade as it blocked international business with the island.
This year the UNGA will vote for the 32nd time on the draft resolution, with the vote scheduled for late October.
The blockade caused losses of 5.056 billion dollars from March 1, 2023 to Feb. 29 this year, up by nearly 200 million dollars year on year, said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, citing figures from the report.
"At current prices, the accumulated damages of the blockade over these six decades amount to the astronomical figure of 164.141 billion dollars," he said, adding that losses would exceed 1.499 trillion dollars in terms of the current devaluation of the dollar relative to the price of gold.
"What makes the Cuban economy unique … is the oppressive, suffocating presence of the blockade," Rodriguez told reporters at a press conference.
Washington is waging economic warfare against Cuba "in technical terms defined by international instruments," making the island's economy a de facto "wartime economy," he said.
A sharp 11 percent drop was logged in Cuba's GDP in 2020, followed by a slight recovery with 1.3 percent growth in 2021 and 2 percent growth in 2022. Yet, it contracted by 2 percent in 2023.
Without the blockade, GDP in 2023 could have expanded by about 8 percent, Rodriguez said.
He added that the blockade impacts key sectors of the economy, including healthcare, education, transportation and construction, among other public services in high demand by the Cuban population.
"The consequences of the blockade against our country are clearly evident like never before in the shortcomings that the population faces in many facets of daily life," he noted.
According to Rodriguez, the 1960 memorandum that outlined U.S. sanctions, drafted by then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lester Mallory, aimed to force Cuba into surrender through hunger and shortages.
"The impact of the blockade is visible in the streets, in the towns, in the cities, throughout our country," he said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump intensified economic pressure with 243 new sanctions, which remain in effect under his successor Joe Biden.
"It is the broadest, most comprehensive, complete and prolonged system of sanctions, of unilateral coercive economic measures that has ever been applied against any country in history," Rodriguez said.
He underscored the damage caused to Cuba by being put on the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which was unilaterally drawn up by the U.S. Department of State and severely damaged Havana's international economic relations.
The U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba violates international law, Rodriguez said, adding that it impeded Cuba's trade by blocking its access to credit and transportation, and persecuted its financial transactions.
The sanctions also affected private companies in Cuba, significantly impacting their economic activity.
"Cuba has always been willing to have a serious and responsible dialogue on the basis of sovereign equality, without overshadowing our independence and sovereignty, with any government, whether republican or democratic," Rodriguez noted.
Since 1992, the UNGA has overwhelmingly voted in favor of the resolution presented by Cuba to lift the blockade. Last year, the draft resolution was approved by 187 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel, with Ukraine abstaining.
The trade embargo was decreed in February 1962 by then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy, just three years after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.■
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