First let me reiterate the Government's position on the US embargo against Cuba. We are opposed to it and we wish to see it brought to an early end. We have regularly supported resolutions in the UN General Assembly calling for its lifting, most recently on 9 November last year when the resolution, co-sponsored by Ireland, was carried by 167 votes in favour to three against, with four abstentions.
As I reported to this House on 28 November, there has been some limited progress. US restrictions on the sale of food and medicines to Cuba were lifted in October as a result of a bipartisan initiative in the US Congress. Regrettably, however, the immediate practical effects of this slight relaxation have been limited, in part because US financial institutions remain constrained from extending credits to facilitate sales of food and medicine to Cuba.
Bearing in mind that the limited measures adopted by the US Senate and House of Representatives last year had both Republican and Democratic support, I hope very much that the new US Administration will consider a full review of the embargo. There are other options available to the United States for persuading the Cuban Government to observe its international obligations in respect of human rights. I am aware of reports that Secretary of State Colin Powell is keen to evaluate the efficacy of existing US sanctions policy in general. Despite negative indications given by Vice-President Cheney last weekend concerning the possible lifting of the embargo on Cuba, it would be timely for any general review by the new Administration to include the case of Cuba. In this context, I hope the US Administration will consider the approach that is being followed by the European Union. The European Union's common position on Cuba is not designed to isolate that country. The EU is anxious for closer relations with Cuba. EU member states carry on normal bilateral relations across the standard spectrum of contacts from trade to culture and have actively developed their economic relations with the island to such an extent that the EU is now Cuba's leading foreign investor, principal trade partner, premier source of tourists and largest provider of development aid and humanitarian assistance. That is far from a policy of isolation.
The European Union would very much wish to move to an even closer relationship with Cuba of the kind obtaining with other Latin American countries and which usually finds expression in the shape of a formal co-operation agreement. However, as the common policy states, the EU must evaluate developments in the policies, both internal and external, pursued by Cuba "according to the same standards that apply to EU relations with other countries, in particular the ratification and observance of international human rights conventions".
Regrettably, the Cuban Government continues to fail to observe its international obligations in respect of many fundamental human rights. It was for this reason that on 4 December last, following a meticulous examination of the conditions prevailing in Cuba, the EU General Affairs Council was reluctantly obliged once again to renew the terms of the common position, pending a change in Cuban policy regarding human rights and freedoms which would enable Havana to accept the standards applied by the EU, without any discrimination, to all countries wishing to have the kind of enhanced relationship with the Union usually formalised in a co-operation agreement.
Nevertheless, in the meantime, as the Council decision of 4 December last makes clear, "it is essential that the EU should deploy further efforts to engage the Cuban authorities in a constructive and frank dialogue on a variety of issues of common interest that may actually produce tangible results, particularly in the political, economic and civil rights spheres. Confidence-building measures should thus continue to be implemented in the spirit of the common position, which will be maintained as the basis of EU-Cuban relations."
The Government will work to ensure that the European Union maintains its efforts to try to develop a new basis for a better relationship with Cuba.