give favourable consideration to the granting of an export licence for a product prottuced in a third country, nhen the United States component' of a non-strategic product, does not exced 20 per cent of the total export value' 45. Another aspect that has influenced trade has been the Pressure that the United states bas exerted and continues to exert on countrles not to trade rdith cuba. on oany occasiong, tbe scope of the eobargo policy has gone behond the frontiers of tbe un iteal states anal Cuba and beyond the strictly economic field' For example' towards the enal of 1980, the United States Department of the Treasury prohibited the import of special st.eels produced by the French company Creusot-Loiret on the grounds that the flrm used Cuban nickel in the production process, clting the provisions of the Cuban Assets Control r€gulations as probibiting such trade' At a later point !fien faced rrl th the development of an epidemic spread by a vector, cuba sought to obtaln on the l€tin Amerlcn market lhe cbenicals needed to eradicate the disease, lts efforts rdere bampered by the action of Uniced states lransnational corporations distributing or ;wning the patent" on lhe chenicals' cuba !'as forced to i.port malathion from Europe at hlgh additional transport c-osts, which made it lrhree and a half tines oore expensive. This actlon, in addition to placinq a large number of human lives at risk and inposing very high costs on the country concerned, interfered ttith and prevented the carrylng out of a trade lransaction beleeen tu,o Latin American countries. 46. It should also be pointed out that this tlor th American policy tonards Cuba has even been extended to the countryts participation in the multilateral and mutually agreed activities of the latin American Economic system (SELA) when lhe so-called
**Analysis**
The text discusses the economic and trade relationships between the United States, Cuba, and other Latin American countries. It highlights the restrictions and embargoes imposed by the United States on Cuba, including the prohibition of trade and the use of Cuban nickel in the production of certain products. The text also mentions the difficulties Cuba faced in obtaining chemicals needed to eradicate a disease, due to the actions of US transnational corporations. These points suggest that the text is primarily related to international trade and economic development.

**Category**
International trade, Economic development