Cuban Minister of Finance and Prices, Lina Pedraza, denounced here today that the U.S. blockade on Cuba worsens and strongly affects the financial sector, despite the restoration of relations between the two countries.
 
The channels for financial transactions is closing to us and many businesses can be fined for trading with Cuba because of the extraterritorial nature of this policy, Pedraza told Prensa Latina, after being received by Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, as part of the visit she is carrying out to Vietnam.
 
We have to firstly eliminate the blockade and resolve other issues to talk about broader relations, stressing that the restoration of those ties is a slow process, she said.
 
In financial terms, we have a large loss because the measures the government has taken as of extraterritorial laws that apply with the blockade have turned the country into one of greatest risk.
 
By extending the issue, she said that trade operations conducted through dozens of banks that had excellent relations with Cuba, this last year, for example, were not carried out.
 
Many companies state that can have a loss or receive a fine and not trade with the country, she said.
 
Pedraza recalled in this context the super-fine applied to French bank BNP Paribas, for more than $8 billion USD, which had a real impact on the bank world in all financial activity and made that the managerial sector also suspended.
 
That measure worsens and the problems that are within the powers of the U.S. president have not managed to solve, because blocks from it that do not depend of the Congress can be dismantled, she added.
 
The minister's visit to Vietnam continued the bilateral cooperation in the financial sector, newly renewed with a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the 2016-2020 period.