News and Analysis • Volume 2 • Number 18 • 18th May 1998

‘Global economic crisis. What to do?’ Fidel Castro at WTO

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Addressing a plenary meeting of more than one thousand delegates plus non-governmental organizations gathered in Geneva to commemorate the 50 years of the WTO, Cuban President Fidel Castro called on the WTO to address the real issues of today’s global economy.

Focusing on the economic weaknesses and hegemonic power of the U.S., Castro blamed the US for a possible global economic catastrophe. At the same time, Castro praised the WTO for being a one-country, one-vote organization where no one has the right to veto. And, instigating all countries in the world to become members of the WTO, he called on those present to turn the WTO into an “instrument of the struggle for a more just and better world.”

President Castro also used the opportunity to welcome the emergence of the Euro as a balancing currency vis-a-vis the US dollar. However, Castro was adamant in his condemnation of the Helms-Burton Act and called the EU-US agreements announced in London on 18 May “unclear, contradictory and threatening for many countries, as well as unethical.”

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