That the largest trading partner for Cuba as been the EU. Which basically told the US to shove it when the 1992 act was passed along with subsequent ones in 1996, 2000 and 2002. Promising retalitory sanctions if the US imposed sanctions on non US based companies. Actually the EU has begun to level their own sanctions upon Cuba based on human rights violations including the execution of three men who hijacked a ferry to escape to the US.ALEXIS_DH said:
Additionally the EU as chafed at the hostile investment climate, characterized by inefficient and overpriced labor imposed by the communist government, dense regulations, and an impenetrable bureaucracy, continue to deter foreign investment. Foreign direct investment flows decreased from $448 million in 2000 to $39 million in 2001 and were at zero in 2002. The EU offered up a document outlining the problems it was having in July 2002. In that report no mention was made of the US embargo but put solely the reponsibilitly for diminishing EU investment in the hands of the Cubans and their policies.
In doing so the EU came to fall on Castro's bad side. In a speech within the last year, Castro lashed out at
You keep wanting to make this about the US because that's your stance. Again you claim to not support Castro nor his government but offer no criticism nor do you seemingly acknowledge the role that he and it plays in the plight of the Cuban people. Do you think that if the US lifted the embargo tomorrow that the plight of the Cuban people would change? Of course it wouldn't, that's not going to happen until Castro modifies his domestic and international policies to be more beneficial to his own people.
Even the UN has come out with something to say. In a report released just this year by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean recommends that Cuba redesign the parameters of competition in the public, private and cooperative sectors [and] redefine the role of the state in the economy.
A decade ago, the Cuban government adopted a series of modest economic reforms. It permitted U.S. dollars to circulate freely. It allowed tens of thousands of Cubans to operate small businesses. And it began developing its tourism industry. It began to fuel the recovery from the recession caused by the leaving of the Russians. In recent years, instead of continuing to open up the economy, authorities have clamped down, shutting down some private businesses and taxing others out of existence. To carry this to an almost painful end, is the banning of the US currency I mentioned in the first post.
You want to separate Castro from the Cuban people but you can't do that. He is there leader and their government. He is their problem.
