-
So, yes, technically, on paper, the US economic embargo on Cuba 1. only applies to US companies 2. allows Cuba to have other trade partners 3. has exemptions for food and medicine 4. is not a blockade But none of this is true in practice
-
1. Any company that has any business or subsidiary in the United States is subject to sanctions. So if a German company which makes 99.999% of its revenue in Europe has one store of 3 employees open in Bumfuck, IL, it can't trade with Cuba
-
Since the US is the world's largest economy, basically no multinational is willing to never do business with America in exchange for servicing 11 million poor people in Cuba
-
2. The language of the law does not prevent Cuba from having trade partners, but all of Cuba's trade partners receive their own set of sanctions for... trading with Cuba
-
3. The food and medicine exemptions are vaguely worded and stacked with bureaucracy so that in practice, food and medicine are hardly traded. They were explicitly banned until 2000. Here's a Bad Empanada video on it, and examples youtu.be/dM7_wTqDUCU