Yahoo! News. November 9, 2000. By Nicole Winfield,
Associated Press Writer.
UNITED NATIONS, 9 (AP) - Despite a recent effort to ease the U.S. embargo,
Cuba has again drafted a resolution in the General Assembly criticizing the
sanctions and calling on the United States to lift them as soon as possible.
The resolution was expected to pass Thursday with a wide margin - as it has
for the past eight years that Cuba has brought the initiative to the United
Nations (news - web sites). Usually only the United States and Israel vote
against it.
This year's draft resolution is nearly identical to ones that have been
approved in years past even though legislation Congress approved last month
would allow sales of U.S. food and medicine to the island for the first time in
nearly 40 years.
But the law bars the federal government or U.S. banks from financing the
shipments, meaning Cuba would have to pay cash or get credit from a third
country.
Cuban officials say this year's resolution deliberately omitted any
reference to the new U.S. law since Havana believes that the legislation will
toughen rather than ease the embargo.
Cuba insists on a total lifting of the sanctions imposed in 1962 in an
attempt to squeeze President Fidel Castro's government.
The draft urges countries to refrain from imposing embargoes on others. It
also expresses concern at sanctions that affect third countries - a reference to
the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which was designed to discourage foreign investment
in Cuba by punishing foreign companies investing in property confiscated from
Americans.
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