New York, October 24, 2017. From April 2016 to date, the US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba has continued to be enforced. This policy has a strong extraterritorial component that adversely affects the actions of Cuban companies with their counterparts in third countries. Here are some examples:
On 9 September 2016, the Dutch bank Rabobank canceled financial services related to Cuba with the Company Vereenigde Octrooibureaux (V.O.) due to blockade regulations. V.O is in charge of the renewal of patents of BIOCUBAFARMA, a Cuban business group that develops inventions associated with biopharmaceutical products. Consequently, the said business group will not be able to make payments to V.O. in order to maintain its patents in Europe.
On 27 September 2016, it became known that between July and September of that year, 6 banks located in Pakistan refused to open a letter of credit to Cuba for being included in the list of OFAC sanctioned countries. Pakistani biotech Company Macter International had requested the abovementioned document from Cuban Company Heber Biotec for the purchase of 100,000 Hepatitis B vaccines.
On 7 October 2016, Swiss bank UBS S.A. refused to accept a transfer of 20,000 Swiss francs from Cuba, relevant to the payment of the annual contribution of the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
On 31 October 2016, Belgian bank Fintro, a subsidiary of the BNP Paribas-Fortis group, refused to make a transfer of a Belgian citizen to a Cuban citizen affected by Hurricane Matthew. BNP Paribas had been fined US $8.97 billion by OFAC in 2014 for violating sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and Sudan.
On 10 April 2017, the Canadian branch of US Company Expedia broke off negotiations with Hola Suntravel agency, a representative of the Havanatur Company in Canada, to enter into an agreement for the sale of tickets to travel to Cuba. Expedia claimed that the inclusion of Hola Sun in OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals List prevented the realization of the agreement.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations