The U.S. Trade Embargo on Cuba Just Hit 55 Years

The U.S. Trade Embargo on Cuba Just Hit 55 Years
Merrill Fabry Oct. 19, 2015

The Eisenhower administration imposed the first trade embargo on Cuba
exactly 55 years ago, on Oct. 19, 1960

It's been exactly 55 years since President Dwight D. Eisenhower's State
Department imposed the first trade embargo on Cuba on Oct. 19, 1960. The
original embargo covered all U.S. exports to Cuba except for medicine
and some foods. President John F. Kennedy expanded the embargo to cover
U.S. imports from Cuba and made it permanent on Feb. 7, 1962.

Although relations between the two countries warmed this year, the
embargo is still in place and an act of Congress is required to remove it.

The origins of the embargo go back even further, to when Fidel Castro
came to power Jan. 1, 1959. He quickly lost American support as he
publicized private land and companies, and imposed heavy taxes on
imports from the U.S. In the first year of Castro's regime, U.S. trade
with Cuba decreased 20%.

Just before the U.S. imposed the embargo, Cuba made another jab at "the
Yankee imperialists." In a single night, Castro's Cabinet nationalized
382 businesses, "including 105 sugar mills, 13 department stores, 18
distilleries, 61 textile factories, eight railways and all banks, save
the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia," according to
TIME. "The U.S. need not worry that a strategic embargo will damage
private industry in Cuba," the magazine noted. "It no longer exists."

TIME further explained the embargo in a 1960 article:

Washington last week slapped Havana with the most severe trade embargo
imposed on any nation except Red China. Under penalty of a $10,000 fine
and ten years' imprisonment, the U.S. barred from Cuba, which
traditionally buys 70% of its foreign goods in the U.S., two-thirds of
all American imports. Only medicines and nonsubsidized foods, such as
canned goods, may still be shipped.
The U.S. Commerce Secretary was blasé about the embargo's potential to
drive Cuba further to the Soviet side, saying, "Too bad. After all,
we've been the ones who've been pushed around lately."

It's one of the longest running embargoes in U.S. history. The embargo
against North Korea, however, is even older.

Source: The U.S. Trade Embargo on Cuba Just Hit 55 Years | TIME -
http://time.com/4076438/us-cuba-embargo-1960/