Obama expected to extend trade embargo with Cuba

On Sept. 14, the law used to impose the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba will expire unless President Barack Obama signs an extension. Embargo supporters need not worry, however.

All U.S. presidents since the mid-1970s have signed one-year extensions of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA).

And Obama is expected to do the same because even without it the Helms-Burton law would keep the sanctions in place.

But the fact that Amnesty International on Monday urged Obama to let TWTEA expire underlined the legal maneuvering underway as opponents and supporters of the embargo strategize over the best way to undermine or preserve the U.S. sanctions against the island.

Allowing TWTEA to expire would be ``a gesture without meaning,'' said Washington attorney Robert Muse, considered a top expert on the history and legal structure of the embargo. Adopted in 1917, TWTEA for many years was applied to ``enemy countries'' after a formal U.S. declaration of war, Muse said. In 1963. President John F. Kennedy used TWTEA against Cuba under a declaration of an ``international emergency.''

But in the 1970s, TWTEA was replaced by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. No new sanctions could be imposed under TWTEA, Muse added, but Cuba was grandfathered in. The 1996 Helms-Burton measure essentially turned the embargo into law and set conditions for lifting it that amount to having a democratically elected Cuban government.

Cuba is one of the oldest healthcare destinations in the world. The doctors, hospitals and technologies used in healthcare treatments are well reputed in the world. Healthcare centers of Cuba are near beaches so mostly patients choose it a healthcare destination. Patients from Europe and Latin America travel to Cuba to receive high quality medical service at lower prices. The hospitals and doctors of Cuba are popular for cancer treatment, addictions rehabilitation, eye surgery, joint replacement and cosmetic surgery. Costs of treatments in Cuba are 60 to 80 percent less than the costs of treatments in US. There are many well equipped hospitals in Cuba not only for local residents but for foreigners too. A documentary film "Sicko" increased the interest of foreigners in the healthcare services of Cuba. The government of Cuba has also taken some steps to attract medical tourists from all over the world to Cuba to increase income. The residents of UK, Bahamas, Canada, , Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and US can travel to Cuba for healthcare purposes on a tourist visa. Due to the trade policy of America toward Cuba patients need approval from the government of US so they visit Cuba as private matter. Some hospitals of Cuba are worldly known for the quality of its services.