Cuba says embargo costs nation $3.9b

US economic sanctions against Cuba have cost the island nation $3.9 billion in foreign trade over the past year, raising the overall estimate of cumulative economic damage to $116.8 billion over the past 55 years, Cuba said on Tuesday.

The cumulative figure was expressed in current prices. When factoring in the depreciation of the dollar against the international price of gold, the damage rises to $1.11 trillion, the Cuban government estimated.

The figures were published in a report that Cuba prepares for the United Nations each year in requesting a resolution urging an end to the comprehensive US economic embargo and other sanctions.

The UN has passed the resolution, with overwhelming support, for 22 straight years. Last year, the vote was 188 to 2, with only the United States and Israel voting against the resolution.

The US has lost nearly all international support for its Cuba embargo, the only one against Cuba worldwide, since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"There is not, and there has not been in the world, such a terrorizing and vile violation of the human rights of an entire people than the blockade the US government has been leading against Cuba for 55 years," Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno told reporters.

Moreno said the embargo violated the human rights of the Cuban people, and "worse still, it has turned into a financial war ... against Cuba".

After the Cuban revolution in 1959, the United States imposed sanctions in 1960 that ballooned to a full embargo in 1961.

Other US laws have strengthened the embargo over the years, imposing fines on companies from third countries that have business in Cuba and also in the United States.

Reuters-Xinhua

(China Daily 09/11/2014 page11)