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<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=twnet@po.jaring.my
href="mailto:twnet@po.jaring.my">Third World Network</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
<DIV><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">with
permission from <FONT color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black">the South-North
Development Monitor (SUNS) # 6114, 6 October 2006.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><B><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Cuba</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place></st1:country-region><B><SPAN
lang=EN-GB style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">: Embargo's boomerang effect
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">By Patricia <SPAN
class=SpellE>Grogg</SPAN></SPAN><FONT color=black><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: black">, IPS, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Havana</st1:place></st1:City>, </SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">3 October 2006</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><st1:State
w:st="on">Washington</st1:State>'s embargo against <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> also has an impact on the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region> economy and prevents millions of US
citizens from benefiting from Cuban medical progress, according to a report
released by the Cuban foreign ministry.<BR><BR>The text of the report will be
presented at the United Nations General Assembly, which on 8 November will be
examining for the fifteenth consecutive year the need to end the embargo imposed
by <st1:State w:st="on">Washington</st1:State> on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Havana</st1:City></st1:place> more than four decades ago.<BR><BR>The
document states that "because of the blockade regulations" it has been
impossible to begin clinical trials in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> with <SPAN
class=SpellE>TheraCIM</SPAN>, a Cuban pharmaceutical product for treating brain
tumours in children. <SPAN class=SpellE>TheraCIM</SPAN> is produced by the
Molecular Immunology Centre, which in 2004 made a deal with <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place>
<SPAN class=GramE>company</SPAN> <SPAN class=SpellE>CancerVax</SPAN> to develop
and produce therapeutic vaccines against cancer.<BR><BR>This medication is
registered in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region> and other countries for treating
cancer of the head and neck, and has been proved to reduce tumour mass. It could
benefit children in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> and other countries
with this type of cancer, the report points out.<BR><BR>It also adds that were
it not for the embargo, millions of people in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
suffering from diabetes could benefit from <SPAN class=SpellE>Citoprot</SPAN> P,
a unique product and treatment method that accelerates healing of diabetic foot
ulcers, reducing the risk of lower extremity amputations.<BR><BR><SPAN
class=SpellE>Citoprot</SPAN> P was developed by the Cuban Centre for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology. According to the foreign ministry report, about
20.8 million people in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> suffer from diabetes, a
chronic incurable disease. <BR><BR>The restrictions that <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> calls a blockade and the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> <SPAN class=GramE>embargo have</SPAN> cost
this <st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place> country $86.1 billion in total
damages throughout the period, including $4 billion in 2005 alone, the document
says. Last year, the UN approved by 182 votes the Cuban motion in favour of
lifting the embargo. The motion was first set before the UN General Assembly in
1992, when only 59 countries voted in favour of the resolution.<BR><BR>The
report states that the ban on <st1:country-region
w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> tourism to <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> causes tourist agents in the
<st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> losses of $565 million per
million <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> tourists who are prevented from
visiting the country. An estimated 1.8 million <st1:country-region
w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> tourists could have vacationed in this
<st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place> island in 2005, but because of the
ban, US tourist agencies lost potential income of $996 million, the report
says.<BR><BR>In addition, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> imports about 148,000 tons of
primary nickel and some 10,000 tons of cobalt annually "from distant markets."
But "if the blockade did not exist," it could purchase these raw materials from
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>, only 200 kilometres away, the
report notes.<BR><BR>At present <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> produces about 77,000 tons of nickel a year,
and output is set to increase through an investment programme agreed with
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> in March 2005 for the
expansion and modernisation of a joint venture company to exploit the
mineral.<BR><BR><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region> has proven nickel reserves of
800 million tons, and potential reserves are estimated at two billion tons. The
country's cobalt reserves amount to approximately 26% of total world reserves,
according to official sources.<BR><BR>Energy is another good business that
<st1:City w:st="on">Havana</st1:City> says <st1:country-region
w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> companies are missing out on, because they are
forbidden to participate in prospecting for oil on <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>'s undersea platform in the Gulf of Mexico,
only 137 kilometres from <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:State>.<BR><BR>The platform to the north of
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region> has an estimated potential of
between one billion and 9.3 billion barrels of crude and between 1.9 trillion
and 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. These estimates in the Cuban foreign
ministry's report are attributed to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which said
"the possibilities of success are of the order of 95%."<BR
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