U.S. blocking Cuba’s access to information technology

OBSTACLES preventing access to information technology and communications derived from the U.S. blockade of Cuba were denounced before the World Trade Organization in Geneva on May 16. Washington must be called upon to end its unilateral coercive measures, asserted Carlos Fidel Martín, from the Cuban embassy in Switzerland, during a symposium organized for the 15th anniversary of the Information Technology Agreement. The U.S. blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 50 years is hindering the buying and selling of these products and services on the world market, as well as electronic trade, a key instrument of support for international economic links, the diplomat stated, as quoted by Prensa Latina.

"These practices are contrary to international law and WTO regulations and also have extraterritorial ramifications," he noted.

Martín also confirmed his rejection of so-called plurinational initiatives or ones that are more restrictive in terms of the number of participants currently being promoted by certain industrialized countries, to the detriment of the fundamental principles of the Multilateral Trading System.

The previous week in Geneva, Cuban representative Juan Antonio Quintanilla, speaking at the 13th session of the Working Group on the Right to Development, a UN Human Rights Council subsidiary body, stated that the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of Cuban citizens’ human rights.

Quintanilla emphasized that the U.S. blockade is intensifying, despite reiterated and virtually unanimous demands for its elimination on the part of the international community.

He noted that direct economic damage inflicted by the restrictive U.S. policy stood in excess of $104 billion in December 2010, using current prices and very conservative estimates.