<P> The United States embargo against Cuba (in Cuba called el bloqueo, "the blockade") is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba . An embargo was first imposed by the United States on sale of arms to Cuba on March 14, 1958, during the Fulgencio Batista regime . Again on October 19, 1960 (almost two years after the Batista regime was deposed by the Cuban Revolution) the U.S. placed an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine after Cuba nationalized American - owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation . On February 7, 1962 the embargo was extended to include almost all imports . Currently, the Cuban embargo is enforced mainly through six statutes: the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Helms--Burton Act of 1996, and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 . The stated purpose of the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 is to maintain sanctions on Cuba so long as the Cuban government refuses to move toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights". The Helms--Burton Act further restricted United States citizens from doing business in or with Cuba, and mandated restrictions on giving public or private assistance to any successor government in Havana unless and until certain claims against the Cuban government were met . In 1999, President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo by also disallowing foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to trade with Cuba . In 2000, Clinton authorized the sale of "humanitarian" U.S. products to Cuba . </P> <P> Despite the Spanish - language term bloqueo (blockade), there has been no physical, naval blockade of the country by the United States after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 . The United States does not block Cuba's trade with third parties: other countries are not under the jurisdiction of U.S. domestic laws, such as the Cuban Democracy Act (although, in theory, foreign countries that trade with Cuba could be penalised by the U.S., which has been condemned as an "extraterritorial" measure that contravenes "the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention in their internal affairs and freedom of trade and navigation as paramount to the conduct of international affairs ."). Cuba can, and does, conduct international trade with many third - party countries; Cuba has been a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1995 . </P>

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