Philips rejects Castro's charges

Sep 8, 2009
Philips rejects Castro's charges

THE HAGUE - DUTCH electronics giant Philips on Tuesday dismissed claims
by ex-president Fidel Castro of 'betrayal' and blamed bureaucratic red
tape for a delay in delivering medical equipment to Cuba.

'Because of the complexity of the application of the rules to the
transactions, the company did not obtain all the licences required' for
the delivery of spare parts for medical equipment, Philips said in a
statement.

'We have disclosed the matter, cooperated fully, accepted the penalties
and improved our procedures to prevent similar recurrences.'

Castro on Monday slammed the company as a 'traitor' for failing to
deliver the parts under pressure from the United States, which has had a
full economic embargo on Cuba since 1962.

He claimed that in 2006, at the request of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, Cuba bought from Philips and Germany's Siemens thousands of
pieces of advanced medical equipment for the two countries.

Oil-rich Venezuela is Cuba's key regional ally, and keeps Havana's
deeply strained central economy just barely afloat.

While the United States has made enough loopholes in its own sanctions
to become a leading supplier of food to Cuba, most US industrial and
manufactured goods still cannot be sold directly to the Americas' lone
communist government.

While Siemens 'kept its promises", Philips did not deliver on time the
3,553 pieces of equipment worth US$72.8 million (S$103 million) due to
what Castro called 'brutal intransigence' on the part of unnamed US
authorities. Only in June did Philips deliver the needed spare parts,
Castro said, after it paid a 100,000-euro fine to the Obama government.

'No one has compensated Cubans, or Venezuelan patients under the care of
doctors, for the human suffering caused,' Castro wrote in an editorial
in official media. 'While the Cuban government is entitled to their
interpretation of this settlement, it is not a matter of if Philips can
sell medical equipment to Cuba, but how - ensuring we adhere to relevant
export laws and the laws of all countries in which we operate,' said the
statement.

Philips said it would continue to sell medical equipment to Cuba, 'with
the appropriate licences'. -- AFP

Philips rejects Castros charges (8 September 2009)
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