Cuba on Thursday laid out at the UN Security Council (UNSC) the negative impact of the US blockade on the country´s food security amid the Covid-19 crisis.
 
According to Pedro Luis Pedroso, Cuba´s permanent representative to the UN, said his country is currently facing up colossal challenges imposed by the US blockade, tightened as never before in the last four years.
 
As an example, Pedroso´s statement referred to how only from April 2019 to March 2020 US blockade damages were reported for a ballpark figure of US$ 428,894,637 just in the food sector.
 
Such damages would have been avoided if Cuban state-run companies had been able to access the US market with no unfair, illegitimate restrictions, he said.
 
Likewise, he mentioned Cuba´s lack of access to financing from US banks and international credit system, due to the so-called country-risk indicator.
 
Cuba cannot make payments in US dollars to third parties, all of which makes its normal access to international markets much more expensive and difficult to purchase food and staples, according to the statement.