November 03 Newsletter
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Vol. VIII, No. 7 www.cubatradenews.com July 2006 Court to Cubatabaco: Go Back to Start Ending a nine-year legal odyssey, the U.S. Supreme Cubatabaco, which since 1997 tried Court June 19 sent Empresa Cubana del Tabaco S.A. to secure the trademark for the Cohiba packing, denying review of a 2005 Appeals Court ruling name in the United States against that said Cubatabaco could not seek the rights to the New York-based competitor Cohiba name in U.S. courts, due to embargo restrictions. General Cigar Co., said it would The Supreme Court, in essence, determined that a U.S. start a lawsuit from scratch law that prohibits the recognition of again, and seek a license from Cuban trademarks is more the U.S. Treasury important than U.S. Department to do so. commitment to international Meanwhile, General Cigar trademark agreements. continues to sell Dominican-made cigars in the United States Before the denial, the Bush under the venerable Cohiba name. Administration filed an amicus brief The Supreme Court replicated the Appeals Court’s opinion urging the Supreme Court to not that Cubatabaco didn’t have specific permission from the consider the case. U.S. Treasury Department that would have allowed it to In first instance, a New York District pursue judicial protection for the trademark in the United Court in 2004 had ruled in favor of States. Cubatabaco. Continued on next page Embargo Updatet Economy ANOTHER BANK SHUNS CUBA CUBA PLANS TO EXPORT OIL U.S. efforts to tighten the embargo apparently prompted Cuba is planning to export some of the heavy oil produced another foreign bank to cut back its Cuban business. The in the northwest of the island, Basic Industries Minister Yadira Toronto Star reported in June that HSBC Bank Canada, a García said in a recent speech to the national parliament. subsidiary of London-based HSBC Holdings plc, is canceling According to Reuters, a few foreign tankers have already accounts of customers in Cuba. shipped Cuban crude to the Far East. A spokeswoman for HSBC Bank Canada confirmed to the Up to now, state oil company CubaPetróleo has been buying Star that the bank restricted its business with Cuba residents, the entire domestic oil production to fuel Cuba’s thermoelectric to comply with U.S. Treasury Department sanctions against power plants and cement plants. However, production of “terrorist regimes.” sulphur-heavy oil is rising fast, and the Cuban government HSBC’s move comes after Canada’s Scotiabank in March Continued on next page shut down U.S. Cuba Trade & Investment News dollar accounts and Heavy oil for obtained a copy of the presidential denied U.S. dollar export? commission on Cuba’s preliminary transactions to Drilling rig report, with recommendations to customers in Cuba, on Cuba’s further tighten the embargo. The citing U.S. Patriot northern report is expected to be officially un- Act regulations. coast. As a result, veiled during the first week of July. Canadian See Phil Peters’ column and our documentation on p.3. Cont’d on next page courtesy Pebercan ‘Cubatabaco,’ from previous page General Cigar, which was taken over by Cubatabaco announced it would continue to fight for the Swedish Match AB in 2000, registered the Cohiba trademark in the United States. Cohiba name in the United States in 1981, and “Cubatabaco will now pursue its pending application for produced some cigars under the name until U.S. government permission from the Treasury Department’s 1987. General Cigar didn’t use the name Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers the U.S. for five years. It restarted production in blockade,” Cubatabaco’s law firm said in a press release 1992, and registered the trademark again the day of the Supreme Court decision. in 1995. Cubatabaco is represented by New York’s Rabinowitz, In an earlier trademark battle over Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman. Havana Club rum, Cuba threatened it could begin to Cubatabaco first registered the Cohiba brand in Cuba in disregard some 5,000 U.S. trademarks registered on the 1969, but it didn’t begin exporting Cohiba cigars until 1982. island. Cuban officials haven’t made any comments since The Cubans registered the name in 115 countries. the Supreme Court’s Cohiba ruling. ‘Another Canadian bank,’ from previous page ‘Oil exports,’ from previous page businesspeople in Cuba are crying foul over U.S. trade said it wants to phase out its Soviet-era power plants. practices. From their perspective, the U.S. government is There are twice as many drilling rigs in Cuba this year as trying to impose embargo restrictions on foreign banks while last year. By 2007, Cuba wants to have 18 rigs operating. exempting U.S. exporters from these same restrictions. The global refining capacity for heavy crude has declined “The Americans are playing very unfair games,” the Star over the past two years; the price rise for light oil has been quotes Sam Raina, president of the 52-member Canadian faster than that of heavy oil. Heavy crude currently sells for Business Club in Havana. Raina says pressure by the U.S. about $10/barrel below the price of light oil. However, the government prompted HSBC Bank Canada to close his U.S. interest for heavy oil is rising worldwide as proven reserves dollar accounts and credit cards in Cuba. of conventional crude are running out. The environmental “This has all of a sudden become an issue because U.S. damage from heavy-oil spills is potentially greater, and the trade with Cuba is getting higher and higher and stronger refining process is more expensive, but high refining yields and stronger,” Raina told the Toronto Star. of valuable light and middle distillate fuels can be obtained Cuba trade advocates in Washington suggest the problem from heavy oil. aren’t the exemptions, but the extra-territoriality of U.S. laws and the lack of control by the Bush Administration over mid- Venezuela, Angola support Cuban oil quest level bureaucrats at the Treasury Department. The exploration subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela “It seems to me that Canada should issue an official (PdVSA) agreed to provide technical services to the Centro complaint to the United States, citing the extra-territoriality de Investigaciones del Petróleo de Cuba (Ceinpet). PdVSA of the U.S. embargo and the Canadian blocking statute,” a said its Intevep subsidiary would help Cuba increase oil Cuba trade activist told Cuba Trade News. production and improve Cuban refining processes by However, although a Canadian Helms-Burton antidote law providing technology and know-how in the areas of prohibits Canadian companies from complying with extra- exploration, production and refining. territorial U.S. embargo enforcement, the Canadian Meanwhile, Angola, Sub-Saharan Africa’s second- government has not taken any action. Canadian largest oil producer, said it would like to cooperate with businesspeople in Cuba told the Star reporter that Ottawa is Cuba in oil matters. Angola’s Oil Minister Desiderio Costa “kowtowing to American pressure.” New conservative Prime was in Havana for a work visit June 4. State company Minister Stephen Harper vowed in January to improve Sonangol is an active participant in offshore drilling. relations with Washington. Cuba Trade & Investment News is a monthly publication of North American Partners (NAP), Tampa, FL, USA. CTIN is distributed to subscribers via mail or e-mail. Publisher Andrew Goddard P.O. Box 13752 Tampa, FL 33681-3752 USA Tel: 813 839 6988 Fax: 813 831 3811 [email protected] www.cubatradenews.com Editor Johannes Werner [email protected] Tel: 941 330 0303 Editorial Advisors: Chris Aberle, Michelle Butler, Jorge Echave, Kirby Jones, David Lyons, John McAuliff, Phil Peters SUBSCRIPTIONS Call 813 839 6988. One year $300. In Canada and Mexico, add $15 postage. COPYRIGHT NOTICE No part of this publication may be copied, photographed or duplicated without NAP’s consent. 2 Documentation: Transition Report Cuba A preliminary version of the second report of the Bush Administration’s “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba” circulated in Washington during the last week of June. Below, we are reprinting excerpts from the report that we believe Policy Report are most relevant to foreigners doing business with or in Cuba. President George W. Bush approved virtually all recommendations in the last report in 2004. “This document represents the work country is necessary to the national of over 100 participants from interest and will expedite a transition to seventeen federal departments and democracy in Cuba, consider in particular agencies over the course of several whether it is engaged in a process of months. (…)” support for regime succession; “The Commission recommends the Vigorously enforce Title IV of the Cuba Fund for a Democratic Future: Libertad Act; particularly focusing $80 million over two years to increase enforcement action on traffickers support for Cuban civil society, expand involved in strategic industries such as oil, tourism, nickel, tobacco, and rum By Phil Peters international awareness, break the regime’s information blockade, and which finance Cuba’s repressive apparatus; and Cuba transition report: continue developing assistance initiatives to help Cuban civil society Encourage Cuban workers in tourism, New tone, old ideas realize a democratic transition. The mining, and other sectors who work for Commission also recommends foreign companies to keep complete A draft of the long-awaited second consistent yearly funding of Cuba wage records.” report of the Administration’s Cuba democracy programs at no less than (…) commission circulated in $20 million on an annual basis Washington in the last week of June. thereafter until the dictatorship ceases “Identify and target human The report makes no dramatic to exist. (…) rights violators change in policy. However, it adopts •Support to independent civil society (…) a new tone that seems to recognize on the island ($31 million).