President Barack Obama signed an order extending for another year the law used to impose the US trade blockade on Cuba, despite calls to lift all unilateral economic sanctions against the Caribbean nation.

Granma newspaper reports that Obama has followed in the footsteps of all previous US presidents who have signed one-year extensions of the law since the 1970s. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, signed the last extension on September 12, 2008.

“I hereby determine that the continuation for one year of the exercise of those authorities with respect to Cuba is in the national interest of the United States,” Obama said in a statement issued by the White House on Monday, referring to the trade blockade under the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA).

Cuba is the only country in the world subject to sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act, enacted in 1917 and which bans trading with countries considered a threat for the United States, currently only affects Cuba.

The one-year extension of the blockade is announced only days before the next meeting of the UN General Assembly, which has condemned – for 17 consecutive years – the US blockade that has cost Cuba more than $90 billion in economic losses.