The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator AJ Nicholson, says the Jamaican government made it clear to US based retailer PriceSmart, that its recent ban on Cuban diplomats doing business with its Jamaican outlet, ran counter to non discrimination provisions.
Minister Nicholson made the comments while speaking with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriques Parilla at the 35th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting, now underway in Antigua.
Minister Nicholson says the ban, which has since been lifted, contravened the Jamaican law and constitution, along with those of CARICOM members states.
He says the unfortunate ban, which was imposed in April but lifted in June, was one of the worst forms of the extraterritorial application of United States law.
Minister Nicholson says Jamaica worked strenuously within the institutions of CARICOM to have the matter resolved.
Minister Nicholson told his Cuban counterpart that CARICOM’s Council for Foreign and Community Relations was adamant that the ban could not stand.
He says the Council would have been willing to take the matter as high up as the US Attorney General’s Office, had the matter not been resolved by PriceSmart.
