Havana, June 20 (RHC)-- Cuba denounced in Geneva the illegal use of the Havana Club brand in the United States to commercialize rum that is not produced in Cuba.

Cuba's permanent ambassador in Geneva, Anayansi Rodríguez, presented a detailed statement on the United States-Cuba “Havana Club” trademark dispute, particularly regarding Section 211 of the US Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1998.

She recalled that in 2000 a claim was presented before the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body by European countries, representing the interests of the company Havana Club Holding S.A.

The process ended in 2002 with the WTO's body ruling that Section 211 of the US Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1998 violated several WTO norms and regulations, regarding mainly Intellectual Properties Rights on trademarks and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, and called on Washington to remedy the situation.

The Cuban ambassador stressed that to this date Washington has don't nothing to comply with the WTO's ruling on the case, and as a consequence, the US-based company Bacardi commercializes a rum brand that is not Cuban in the U.S., using the Havana Club trademark.

The representatives of several countries took the floor at the Geneva meeting in support of Cuba, among them Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.