PriceSmart and Cuba in ‘shopping’ dispute

PriceSmart and Cuba in 'shopping' dispute

By rickey singh

Story Created: Apr 12, 2014 at 8:40 PM ECT



International ware­house shopping company PriceSmart, which operates

in vari­ous Caribbean Com­mu­nity (Caricom) states, is under sharp

criticisms for now involving Cuba's diplomatic mis­sions in the region

in the more than half-cen­tury of America's trade, economic and

financial blockade of that Caribbean nation.

Immediately affected Cuban missions include Barbados, Jamaica, and

Trinidad and Tobago where accredited diplo­mats, their families and

staff have been in­formed by PriceSmart management of the sus­pension of

busi­ness ac­counts after being ad­vised by the parent company of

possible vio­lations of the US embargo in trans­acting business with

Cu­bans without "per­manent residency" in countries of their opera­tions.

In a mixture of hila­ri­ty and strong warning, current Caricom chairman

Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Gre­na­dines Dr Ralph Gon­salves

said in a telephone interview yesterday that the US government should be

"mindful of the implications of Price­Smart's action".

He pointed out while at first, he could not resist "laughing at this

infantile political move", he was never­theless mindful that PriceSmart

is in­corporated into the laws of sovereign Carib­be­an states, and now

enga­ging in "unnecessary, unprovoked acts" against Cuba's diplomatic

per­sonnel and other Cuban nationals who are wor­king in various

regional sectors, including doctors and nurses.

The Vincentian prime minister said neither the US government nor owners

and operators of corporate enterprises like PriceSmart could be

unmindful of the historic role initially played by Caricom countries to

bring Cuba out of the "dip­lo­matic isolation" to which the US economic

embargo had assigned it, following its Fidel Cas­tro-led 1959 revolution.

Further, of the com­mu­­nity's continuing involve­ment with the rest of

the international commu­nity, minus the mi­nis­­cule exception of three,

in passage year after year, resolutions denouncing the "archaic law"

gover­ning the embargo which has "miserably failed to destabilise" the

govern­ment in Havana or to "quench the revolution­ary spirit of the

Cuban peo­ple...".



'Criminal act'



Criticisms of Price­Smart's suspension of bus­iness accounts for

Cu­­bans have come from

Cuba's embassies in Ja­mai­ca, Barbados, and Trini­dad and Tobago,

headed respectively by ambassadors Bernardo Guanche Hernandez, Lis­ette

Perez Perez and Guit­termo Vazquez Moreno.

For ambassador Her­nan­dez, the decision by PriceSmart constituted "a

criminal act, based on an anachronistic law" which violates the Vienna

convention.

In Barbados, ambas­sa­dor Perez disclosed a representative of the local

PriceSmart turned up to inform the embassy about the suspension of

business transactions while, he explained, they invest "effort, time

and resources" in pursuing lawful channels in the US which "may enable

us to reactivate those accounts…".

The resident Cuban diplo­matic missions in Barba­dos, Jamaica, and

Trini­dad and Tobago have pointed to "unne­ces­sary inconveniences" to

non-embassy staff like Cuban doctors and teachers.

According to ambassador Pe­­rez, there seems to be an "un­derlying

intention to en­courage defec­tions" by Cubans, in favour of having

per­manent resident status that would enable them to do "membership

busi­ness" with PriceSmart.

"This is the sort of con­tempt by those", she said, "who do not really

understand what the Cu­ban revolution and Cuban patriotism mean for us...".

Ironically, the move by Price­Smart to suspend busi­ness tran­sactions

with Cu­ban di­plo­matic missions and Cubans who do not have permanent

work­­ing status in Caricom states came against the backdrop of approval

last month by the Cuban National Assem­bly of a ground-breaking

for­eign-investment law to en­cou­rage a new "development partner­ship"

that would be exten­ded also to overseas-based Cubans.



Source: PriceSmart and Cuba in 'shopping' dispute | Trinidad Express

Newspaper | News -

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/PriceSmart-and-Cuba--in-shopping-dispute--255047631.html