AMERICA`S CUBAN CONUNDRUM

Case Study: “America`s Cuban Conundrum”



Case Study: “America`s Cuban Conundrum”

Analyze the key issue that prompted the EU to take the Helms-Burton dispute to the WTO (Joseph, 0002).

Helms-Burton Act of 1996 remained a controversial dispute not only in the eyes of the European Union (EU) but of the world at large. While the United States was persistent in imposing the provisions given in the Act, the EU insisted that it was unlawful. The EU had many reasons to say so. Firstly the validity of this Act remained doubtful and the EU decided that it has to be questioned and duly investigated, using the internationally recognized platform of the World trade Organization (WTO) (Joseph, 0002).

The Helms-Burton act unlawfully imposed the United State's legislation outside its own borders and forcibly hindered the trade and tourism between countries like Canada, Mexico and the independent Cuba. This was unjustified and thoroughly against the U.S. bindings under the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT).the Act attracted mush of the protests from the other independent states that deemed it a failure of the U.S foreign policy and had been cruelly punishing the Cubans and Cuban Americans. This violation had to be investigated under the WTO which was the only body governing the world trade affairs. The U.S. had misused its supremacy to establish policies that hindered the Cuban economy and prohibited other independent states from trading with Cuba.

It was under these circumstances that the EU, supported by the United Kingdom, Canada and other nations; took the dispute to the WTO for immediate settlement.

Decide who benefits and who suffers from an embargo of this type and explain your rationale.

An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of trade between two countries normally advanced in the interests of a state with respect to international trade. In a kind of embargo like this, the country that imposed it usually benefits and the country on which it is imposed face the consequences. In our case, the U.S. imposed the embargo to protect its interest while unlawfully harming the Cuban economy (Suchlicki, 2000).

According to the U.S. officials it meant not to punish the Cuban government for its illegal confiscation of the U.S. property, but rather to compel the Cuban officials to adopt democracy and practice a market economy instead of socialism. However, the after effects were worse. It greatly limited the trade market of Cuba by ...