Published Friday, February 16, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
Cuba vows response on frozen funds issue
From Herald Wire Services
HAVANA -- Cuba will respond to a U.S. decision to transfer $93 million of
frozen Cuban assets to the relatives of victims of the Brothers to the Rescue
shoot-down in 1996, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said
Thursday.
Alarcón described the authorization made on Monday as "very
grave'' and "a recurring aggression.''
The planes were downed "while violating national air space,'' he said.
"Cuba is not obliged to announce at every moment what it's going to do,
but you may be certain that we shall provide a response,'' Alarcón told
the official news agency Prensa Latina.
The bank transfer, set for today, includes $58 million in compensatory
damages for the relatives of three of the four fliers killed over the Florida
Straits on Feb. 24, 1996, and an additional $35 million in court-imposed
sanctions against the government of Fidel Castro.
Alarcón said Washington's action "absolutely negates the
possibility of any Cuban commercial transaction in [the United States]'' and "closes
any possibility, even hypothetical, of negotiation between the two countries.''
"By diverting the frozen accounts, [the U.S.] not only strips Cuba of
its legitimate funds but also materially supports the elements involved in
terrorist actions against this country,'' he said.
"The United States does not have the right to use something it doesn't
own,'' Alarcón said.
"To make things worse, the American government with that authorization
encourages future terrorist acts and provocations'' against Cuba.
The money, held in the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, comes from
long-distance telephone revenue paid by AT&T and other American companies to
the Cuban government.
Alarcón recalled that Cuba in December cut direct telephone
communications with U.S. companies that refused to pay a special tax on calls
between the U.S. and Cuba.
German minister: Cuba withdraws invitation to visit
BERLIN -- (AP) -- Germany's deputy foreign minister said Friday that Cuba
has withdrawn an official invitation for him to visit the country next week.
Ludger Volmer said Cuban authorities asked him to call off the trip because
of critical comments he allegedly made about the communist-ruled island, though
details of the reasoning were not immediately clear. Volmer said he didn't
understand the Cuban reaction.
He said the decision showed "that the necessary readiness for a
comprehensive political dialogue apparently is not in place at present on the
Cuban side.'' He added that the trip wouldn't make sense in the circumstances.
On Wednesday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper cited Volmer as saying he
hoped for "improvements in human rights through the gradual intensification
of German-Cuban relations.'' He also said further progress would be dependent on
how "open to dialogue'' Cuba proves. (gm-tc-swg)
Embargo's impact slight, report says
Cuba's trade seen as limited by own politics
BY KEN GUGGENHEIM Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- U.S. sanctions on Cuba have cost Americans less than $1
billion a year in exports and have had a similarly minimal impact on the
communist island, according to the most comprehensive federal study ever of the
embargo's impact.
The International Trade Commission report, sent Thursday to the House Ways
and Means Committee but not released publicly, could provide fodder to those on
both sides of the debate over lifting the 39-year-old trade embargo. An
executive summary was obtained by the Associated Press.
Supporters of the embargo can say the report boosts their argument that U.S.
businesses are losing relatively few trade opportunities because of the
sanctions and that lifting the sanctions would do little to boost Cuba's weak
economy and poor living conditions.
"U.S. economic sanctions with respect to Cuba generally had a minimal
overall historical impact'' on the Cuban and U.S. economies, it said.
Even without sanctions, Cuba's own policies would limit trade, the analysts
said.
"Cuba . . . tends to select its trade and investment partners based on
political considerations -- the desire to maintain economic ties with existing
partners and to avoid becoming economically dependent on a single country --
rather than economic cost factors,'' the report said.
But opponents can point to specific instances where the sanctions have cost
the United States trade opportunities -- most notably rice, where U.S. export
losses have been "significant.''
RICE IMPORTS
The sanctions cost U.S. rice growers what had been their leading market from
1955-58. Without sanctions, U.S. rice imports could have increased by 3 percent
to 5 percent a year, the report said.
And the study noted that an estimated 1 million U.S. tourists would visit
Cuba each year if the sanctions were lifted -- which could benefit U.S. travel
businesses that book the trips, along with the Cuban economy.
Overall, the report estimates the United States would have gained $652
million to $990 million a year in exports if the sanctions had been lifted. Cuba
would have gained $84 million to $167 million a year.
In contrast, U.S. companies export more than four times that amount with the
Dominican Republic, a smaller Caribbean country.
EXILE REACTION
"I think the ITC basically established what we've been saying all
along, which is that there's a minimal impact on U.S. business of the
sanctions,'' said Dennis Hays, executive vice president of the Cuban-American
National Foundation.
The study by the independent, nonpartisan agency is believed to be the first
objective attempt by the U.S. government to study the economic effects of
sanctions imposed by President John F. Kennedy to pressure democratic changes in
Fidel Castro's communist Cuba.
Pressure has slowly grown in Congress to lift the sanctions, with some
farm-state Republicans joining liberal Democrats in arguing that sanctions are
ineffective and have hurt both Cubans and Americans. But President Bush has said
he favors maintaining the sanctions.
TOOK NO SIDES
The study did not make a recommendation about whether the embargo should be
continued.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who last year unsuccessfully proposed easing the
sanctions, plans to offer a similar proposal again this year.
"U.S. policy-makers need to take a long hard look at our policy -- one
that is more than 10 years out of date,'' Baucus spokesman Michael Siegel said.
"It only serves to hurt the Cuban people and punish U.S. businesses and it
should be repealed.''
John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said
the study's conclusions on the embargo's impact can be viewed from different
perspectives: from those who looking at the sanctions' effect on the two
nations' economies and those who consider how individual businesses may be
affected.
"For some it's not significant. For others it will be and they'll both
have a legitimate point,'' he said.
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