UNITED STATES – SECTION 211 OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS
ACT OF 1998

Communication from Cuba

            The following communication, dated 28 November 2007, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Cuba.

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STATEMENT BY H.E. AMBASSADOR JUAN ANTONIO FERNANDEZ PALACIOS,

PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF CUBA, ON SECTION 211, BEFORE

THE WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BODY, 19 November 2007

            Mr Chairman,

            Since December 1998, Cuba has been denouncing, here and in other international forums, the discriminatory nature of Section 211 of the United States Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1998.  Next year will mark the tenth year that Cuba has been hoping for an effective response by the WTO to a conflict that highlights the contempt shown by the United States for the principles governing the multilateral trading system when those principles do not work in its favour.

            1 February 2002 saw the adoption of the Appellate Body Report in this dispute.  That the United States should still be repeating the same old reply after all these years is unacceptable.

            There is no longer any doubt as to the political designs behind Section 211, whose purpose is to impede Cuba's development by discouraging foreign investment associated with the international marketing of Cuban products of recognized prestige.  Nor does anybody question who is behind this measure, which is the result of complicity between US administrations and anti-Cuban groups based in Florida.