BBC News Online
Cuba records lowest infant mortality rate
Thursday, 3 January, 2002, 06:53 GMT
Cuba has recorded its lowest infant mortality rate for four decades, with
6.2 children in every 1,000 dying before the age of one.
According to figures from the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, Cuba -
along with Canada - now has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas.
The United States is second with seven in every 1,000 children.
Guatemala has the highest infant mortality rate with 45 in every 1,000
children.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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WTO intervenes in Havana rum clash
Wednesday, 2 January, 2002, 22:41 GMT
The ownership of the Havana Rum brand is disputed
The World Trade Organization has, indirectly, intervened in a punch-up
between Cuban and other makers of rum.
Bacardi made in Cuba in the1860s as a by-product of the sugar industry which
is still one of the main industries on the island
The conflict, between Bermuda-based Bacardi and an international distributor
of rums from Cuban distilleries, has lasted for years.
Both Bacardi and the French drinks maker Pernod Ricard insist that they have
the rights to the Havana Club trademark.
And, bizarrely, they may both be right, depending on which jurisdiction
makes the ruling.
New and old owners
Pernod distributes the Cuban version of Havana Rum, through a joint venture
with a Cuban state enterprise and in agreement with Fidel Castro whose
government had seized privately owned distillers in Cuba after it came to power
in 1959.
But Bacardi, which claims it bought the rights to the brand name from the
original Cuban owner, Jose Arechabala, in 1997, registered the name in the
United States.
There a law was introduced in 1998, banning US courts from enforcing Cuban
product brand names owned by companies taken away by their original owners by
the Castro government.
The decision angered Fidel Castro who ordered companies seized by his
government to produce Bacardi-brand rums for sale abroad, in revenge for its
plans to market its own Havana Club rum in the US.
Pernod Ricard was also angered by the US law which essentially made it
impossible for the French drinks giant to enforce the trade mark in the US.
US trade embargo
Pernod Ricard appealed to the WTO.
In an initial ruling in August, the world trade body said the US law was
illegal and ordered the country to change it.
Then, in a surprise twist to the tale, the European Union, appealed the WTO
ruling because it objected to separate parts of it.
The appeal has resulted in the original ruling being overturned, though it
has not dealt directly with the ownership of the Havana Club trademark.
Nevertheless, the ruling, which is final, is considered a victory for
Bacardi, even though the US must still amend its law to remove discrimination
against Cuban nationals' rights to defend their trademark rights in the US.
Pernod Ricard cannot currently sell Havana Club in the US due to its trade
embargo against Cuba, but the company is keen to cling onto the trademark in
case this restriction is removed in the future.
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