Economic sanctions can be and are a valuable tool for enforcing international norms and protecting our national interests. The U.S. Policy of applying economic pressure in Cuba originated soon after Fidel Castro came into power in 1959. The United States first imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba on February 3, 1962, after the Kennedy Administration became convinced that Castro was moving rapidly toward the establishment of a totalitarian regime in alliance with the Soviet Union. Castro had not only confiscated U.S. and other Cuban and foreign-owned properties on the island, but had been providing indiscriminate support for violent revolution throughout the Americas as part of his efforts to carry on the "continental struggle against the Yankees," which he considers to be his "true destiny." The embargo was formally begun by President, John F. Kennedy, and has been supported by all successive Presidents. The U.S. embargo has had a major impact on the Cuban economy involving trade, wages, and jobs; and in addition, it has affected many United States' businesses both directly and indirectly. The Helms-Burton Act is one of the major bills regarding trade with Cuba, and it has

Since 1992, 36 of 38 license requests have been approved to U.S. companies and their subsidiaries to sell medicine and medical equipment to Cuba. Sales have included such items as thalamonal, depo-provera, pediatric solutions, syringes, and other items. The Department of Commerce declined the other two requests for licenses it received for failure to meet legal standards. Both of these exceptions to the general policy of approving commercial medical sales occurred in 1994.

After Cuban fighter jets shot down two passenger planes without warning in February 1996, President Clinton showed no hesitation in signing this bill into law. Part of his intentions were to "send Cuba a powerful message that the United States will not tolerate further loss of American life," as Clinton stated himself. The bill targets companies doing business in Cuba in an attempt to block crucial international investment sought by the Cuban government. It allows Americans to sue companies that profit from the property the Cuban government has confiscated in the past 35 years, a stipulation many U.S. allies have shown opposition for. One of the major reasons for the imposition of the embargo was the Cuban Government's failure to compensate thousands of U.S. companies and individuals whose properties, large and small, were confiscated after the revolution. They specifically targeted and took property owned by U.S. nationals. Under the Cuba claims programs in the 1960s, the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission certified 5,911 valid claims by U.S. nationals against the Government of Cuba. The Castro government also took property from thousands of Cubans, some of whom have since become U.S. citizens. Under the law, any person who makes use of property confiscated from Americans by Castro's government can be denied entry into the United States. Cuban-American Representative Ileana Ros-Lechtin, R-Florida, said the bill "will penalize those who have become Castro's new patron saints: the foreign investors who callously traffic in American confiscated property in Cuba to profit from the misery of the Cuban worker." The bill also urges the president to seek an international embargo against Cuba, but currently, no other economic power observes an embargo. Cuba doesn't seem very concerned though. "The main victim of this law will be the United States itself," said Paul Taladrid, Cuba's deputy minister for foreign investment, "because it will have to face the opposition of the rest of the world, or its closest allies."

Jobs in the export sector of the economy tend to pay better than the average wages. Thus even in the full employment economy that the U.S. is enjoying now, the loss of exports still means a loss in wages-the export wage sector premium. The export sector wage premium is about 12 to 15 percent, taking into account both direct and indirect employment. In 1995, the average salary in the manufacturing sector was about $34,020, so the premium paid by the export sector was about $4080 per worker (12% of $34,020). What these figures mean is that, as a consequence of U.S. sanctions, workers probably lost between $800 million and $1 billion in export sector wage premiums in 1995.

In closing, the essential element of the tragedy of the Cuban people is not the United States-Cuba conflict; rather, it is the struggle of eleven million people who seek to assert their human dignity and reclaim the inalienable political, economic and civil rights that were taken away from them by the Castro regime. The Cuban people have been victims of one of the most oppressive regimes of the twentieth century. The systematic violation in Cuba of each and every human right recognized in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been faithfully documented in recent years at the UN Human Rights Commission and by respected human rights organizations throughout the world. The truth is there for all that wish to see. Impervious to the de

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