• APassenger@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Does the entire world have them embargoed? If not, your point about food and tech needs help.

    • bighi@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s much more complicated. There are many countries that doesn’t have an embargo against them, but still gets blocked by the US embargo. The US considers that selling them anything that had an American company involved is helping brake the embargo, and will bring consequences.

      So let’s say India wants to sell them electric bikes. These bikes are made in India. With engines made in China. And wheels made in… Germany.

      I never mentioned major parts coming from the US, right? But let’s say one screw in the engine was bought from the UK, and that company from the UK is owned by a company from the US. Because of that single screw, selling that bike to NK would be considered an attempt to help a country bypass the embargo. And India doesn’t want to lose all the commerce they have with the US and their direct allies.

      Since the US owns companies all around the world, they use that to “force” almost all countries in the world to also not sell to NK or Cuba, even though those countries are not part of the embargo.

      Edit: The UN can make a decision to end these embargoes. But the US holds a special position in the UN, with special veto powers. Brazil recently proposed to end the Cuban embargo. Most countries started voting yes. They all want to sell to Cuba. And then the US said “veto”, ending the proposition even if most countries were voting yes.

      There have been talks between BRICS countries about creating an alternative UN, since the US vetoes anything that doesn’t directly benefit them.

        • bighi@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Sorry, I thought you mentioned food just as an example of stuff in general.

          Food is a bit easier to trade with NK, although there’s pressure for countries to not do that.

          If I’m not mistaken, they mostly bought food from China. But they stopped when the pandemic hit, as an attempt to preserve their country.

          I also remember Brazil (where I live) invested a little bit in trading basic resources like food with “undesirable” countries like NK and Venezuela. But it’s very complicated because they can’t use the normal international means of bank transfer, and there were people complaining about feeding crazy countries. Of course, “crazy” means you don’t jump when imperialists say “jump”.

          But anyway, not being able to easily transfer money makes it harder. And they’re far away, which makes it more expensive.

          If it wasn’t for countries like China, these embargoed socialist countries would be in a much worse situation. I hope NK’s food trade with China goes back to normal, because no one deserves to starve.