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 Business News | May 2007 
Cuba Exposes US Trade Tricks to WTO
 Prensa Latina
| | Fidel Castro has not appeared in public for ten months, but since March he has taken to writing editorial articles. (EPA) |
Geneva - Cuba exposed US open schemes to perpetuate illegal unilateral measures harming Cuban free trade and development, as well as the US business community.
Jorge Ferrer, member of the Cuban Permanent Mission to the UN, denounced before the WTO arbitrator that Washington repeats the same speech every month.
President George W. Bush said he will veto any attempt to flexibilize or lift anti-Cuba illegal measures, and supports Bacardi's suit to annul Cuban rights on Havana Club trademark.
Ferrer said that rising world sales of Havana Club rum in association with the French company Pernod-Ricard has displaced Bacardi, which now tries to breach trademark laws with US Federal support.
But the Court of Appeals of Madrid ruled that Havana Club brand belongs to Havana Club Holding company from the French Pernod Picard association and overruled Bacardi's appeal.
Put World Health Before Submarines, Castro tells Britain
Anthony Boadle - scotsman.com
Havana - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has criticised Britain for building nuclear-powered attack submarines, saying the money would be better spent treating the health of millions of people.
In his latest editorial column, the convalescing Castro said the powerful submarines armed with cruise missiles were sophisticated weapons to be used to police a world order dominated by his arch-enemy, the United States.
"Churchill said: 'Sink the Bismarck!' Today, Blair says: 'Sink what remains of Great Britain's prestige,'" Castro said in his article distributed by e-mail by the Cuban government and due to be printed in the Communist Party newspaper.
The 80-year-old left-wing firebrand, who has not appeared in public since bowel surgery ten months ago, took to writing editorial columns from his sickbed in March to reassert his leadership in Cuba. Castro said Cuba could train 75,000 doctors, treat 150 million people or build 3,000 polyclinics in poor countries for the cost of the four submarines Britain is building.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said this week it has placed a £200 million order with BAE Systems to start building a fourth Astute class submarine. The Royal Navy estimates they will eventually cost £3.6 billion, more than £1 billion over original estimates.
The Astute class submarines are the largest and most powerful attack submarines ever built in Britain for the Royal Navy, the ministry said. They carry conventional weapons. Three other Astute class submarines are under construction and the first is due to be launched on 8 June and to enter service in 2009.
Castro said Britain was once "Queen of the Seas", but all that is left today "is just a fraction of the hegemonic power of its ally and leader, the United States".
Castro has written a string of such editorial columns as he fights ill-health - he recently attacked the US for its plan to switch to using biofuels, arguing that doing so would place world food supplies in jeopardy as land use switched to providing for energy needs.
Although he has not appeared in public for ten months, the 16,000 words published by Communist Party newspapers and repeatedly read out on state media in recent weeks have raised speculation that Castro could lead the country again.
His partial return has many wondering whether he or his brother Raul Castro - who was named interim president when Castro fell sick - is in charge.
"Fidel is writing articles to show that he is still alive. But Raul is silent and nobody is speaking to the Cuban people," said a caretaker watering plants at an apartment building in Havana. "I love Fidel, but it is time he showed up, told Cuba 'Mission Accomplished' and handed power to his aides."
Castro gave his last speech on 26 July, days before emergency bowel surgery forced him to hand over power to Raul, his low-profile brother and defence minister. Eight articles signed by Castro have appeared since.
"He has not appeared physically, so we don't know how he is," said Miriam Leiva, a dissident and former diplomat. "The articles maintain his apparent presence, but they do not deal with the real issues Cubans are facing. The country is in political limbo."
• THE controversial American documentary maker Michael Moore has spoken at the Cannes Film Festival about the US treasury department threatening him with prosecution over a visit he made to Cuba during shooting for his latest film, Sicko.
Moore must respond to questions about a trip he took, accompanied by a group of ill Americans that included 11 September rescue workers, to Cuba to seek treatment. "They want me to name names," he said.
Moore says the group went to Cuba only after failing to gain admittance to the US base at Guantanamo Bay - where, he claims, al-Qaeda suspects receive better medical care than millions of Americans.
Sicko is a ferocious attack on the health care industry in the United States.
"It's a government that's funded by the pharmaceutical companies and the health insurers, so I'm not surprised they're coming after me," said Moore. "I'm surprised they're doing it so soon. I didn't think they'd want to draw attention to the movie this early on."
Sicko has been rapturously received by audiences and critics at Cannes, where it is screening out of competition.
Moore's last film documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, which bashed the US president, George Bush, won the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, in 2004. |
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