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Ambassador Carlos Pérez del Castillo (Uruguay)
C SECTION 211 OF THE UNITED STATES OMNIBUS CONSOLIDATED AND EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT
24. The representative of Haiti shared the concerns of Cuba with respect to Section 211, which appeared to prevent any transaction regarding a trademark or a licence or a trade name bearing an identical or a similar sign to a trademark or a licence or a trade name which was used by any firm confiscated by the Government of Cuba after 1959. In his delegation's view, Section 211 conflicted not only with the WTO Agreements, and in particular some provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, but also impaired the intellectual property rights of the Cuban people as a whole. In addition, Section 211 appeared to be an extension of the Helms-Burton Act. At a recent meeting of the Association of Caribbean States held in Santo Domingo, 25 heads of state and government of the Caribbean region, including Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, had urged the Government of the United States to revoke the Helms-Burton Act which was enacted against Cuba in 1995. It was unfortunate that Section 211 had been enacted exactly when the members of the ACS had renewed their commitment to work on the reinforcement of an economic area based on the rules of the WTO. That measure was particularly unacceptable having in view that, with respect to globalization, the leaders of the Association of Caribbean States had stated that multilateral action was the indispensable answer which permitted to meet the challenges and take advantage of new economic trends. His delegation understood that it would be preferable for the Governments of the United States and Cuba to reach, by means of negotiations, an accepted solution to the problems arising from the confiscation, in Cuba, of certain assets belonging to United States citizens.
IP/C/M/23