Bank ditches UK firms trading with Cuba

[El Presidente]

This is how the embargo reaches far and wide. Much farther than many believe.

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Bank ditches UK firms trading with Cuba

Duncan Campbell

Monday June 16 2008

The Guardian

A Somerset health shop selling Cuban sugar and a London tobacconist dealing in Habanos cigars are among British businesses told by a bank to cut their ties with the island or move their accounts.

Lloyds TSB has written to customers who have dealings with Cuba saying they will have take their accounts elsewhere, apparently in the wake of threats by the US government, which operates an embargo against Cuba.

The US has said it will prosecute any businesses that have any dealings with Cuba and also have a branch in the US.

The Queenswood Natural Foods company, of Bridgwater in Somerset, started buying sugar from Cuba last year and has found it to be a popular line.

Last month, the company received a letter from Lloyds TSB saying that the bank had "recently reviewed its approach to dealing with countries and entities that are subject to government and international sanctions across the globe in order to best protect its customers, its businesses, its people and its reputation". It was no longer prepared to authorise payments from the company to buy sugar from Cuba.

Lloyds TSB has told a tobacco importer trading with the island for more than a century, dealing in the famous Habanos cigars, that it must also make alternative arrangements.

Spelling out the new policy, Phil Markey, relationship director at Lloyds TSB, is apologetic. "I would like to find a way to continue to make these payments for you - the decision however is down to a full risk assessment process within Lloyds TSB," he wrote in a letter at the end of May. "I must advise you to find alternative ways of making payments to your suppliers with Cuban connections."

The Cuban embassy was critical of the bank's move, saying the Bush administration, in continuing the US's "illegal, worldwide economic warfare against Cuba", had been increasingly resorting to pressure through business and finance.

Businesses affected are angered by the decision, but some are reluctant to go public as they try and find other banks. "It is mystifying," said one businessman. "We are able to trade with China and Vietnam but apparently not Cuba. It seems a nonsense."

Lloyds TSB declined to answer questions on its policy over Cuba and whether it had been subjected to threats of legal action in the US. "We would not disclose details of our relationships or discussions with individual customers," said a spokesman.

The Labour MP Ian Gibson, chairman of the all-party Cuba group, condemned Lloyds TSB's action. "We will be taking action against this vindictive political campaign," he said yesterday.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008

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[J-ROD]

Total stupidity. What has happened to common sense?????

[gostgost]

This has to be the biggest bunch of BS I've ever read. To this day I can't stand what that SOB JFK did before signing the embargo.

Had one of his men get him 1500 of his favorite Cuban Cigars and once he had them secured he sign the embargo into law. Talk about a one way street.

I wish no ill health on anyone but this is the kinda of BS that really boils my blood.

Dave.

[patrick]

Wow, just dumb, really dumb. It might have been cheaper to drop their bracnhes in the US, lol.

[brooklyn]

Let me understand this... went to war with Japan and Germany;alllies now.

Went to war with Vietnam;now recognize and trade with them; had quais-war with China who still practices abysmal labor practices and uses forced labor for some products; we trade with them.

Cuba:hmmm... vocal right -wing minority wag US policies toward island.

If I remebr, the West bankrupted the Soviet Union and its minnions with Coca-Cola,Blue jeans,and rock an droll( and lots of military spending).

Americans hate communist tryanny,but believe our way of life would swamp the island with freedom.

While Ireland has suffered a thousand year reign of terror from England, I still went to King's College,London.

Dialogue , not ideologues= free exchange of ideas. Should we not have more faith in our ideals to overcome their oppression?

I think so.

[gostgost]

Isn't that a real kick in the ass??????

[Shelby07]

It's ironic, isn't it? I can get arrested, fined, thrown in jail and have my personal property confiscated because my gov't believes EVERYONE must have personal freedoms.

Hmmm.....

[winelover]

Corporate Britain is running scared of the long arms of the US State. Last year three NatWest bankers were prosecuted in the US for something they did here that had an ancillary US dimension to it. They tried to get prosecuted in England to avoid the US Criminal Justice system but we wouldn't prosecute! I think they ended up doing a plea deal and getting a couple of years in the end.

Part of the paranoia is due to the fact that we have ratified a one-way extradition treaty that was drawn up in the post-9-11 world for the purposes of shipping over terrorists but is actually now used for any Tom **** or Harry. Anyway it has significantly watered down the burden of proof the US govt has to satisfy in making their case for extradition of a Briton. I think it is on the balance of probabilities now. Sensibly, the US govt has not granted the British the same power over their citizens - and quite understandably so!