A/HRC/9/2 page 4 12. The Government referred to the economic, trade and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America on Cuba as the longest and cruellest in the history of humanity as well as constituting an act of genocide, an act of war and an international crime. The Government estimated that, as at May 2007, the direct economic damage caused by those measures exceeded 89 billion United States dollars. 13. The Government pointed out that, in the period from January 2007 to June 2008, the United States authorities had taken further unilateral coercive measures against Cuba and intensified their efforts to promote subversion in Cuba. According to the Government of Cuba, the objective of such measures was to deprive Cuban people of their sovereignty and the exercise of their right to self-determination. Referring to some of the examples of measures taken in that period, the Government indicated that senior officials of the Government of the United States had visited various countries in Europe to lobby for the application of the strategy of the United States against Cuba; that the extraterritorial application of the economic embargo by the United States Department of the Treasury resulted in the cancellation of a leasing agreement for Boeing aircraft by Cuba from an airline; that the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control had fined a number of companies and individuals for conducting financial transactions with Cuba; and that the Government of the United States had denied permits to American musicians to travel to Cuba for an international festival. 14. The Government stated that some sectors, such as food, health, education and transport, had been among the main targets of these policies, and provided detailed examples of the negative impact observed in these sectors. According to the Government, in the food sector, it was estimated that $6.8 million had been lost in egg production and $2.26 million in coffee, honey and charcoal exports owing to the denial of access to technologies or markets. In public health, one of the examples provided by the Government indicated that the National Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases of Cuba had been forced to purchase hypodermic syringes from China and Japan at a higher cost in order to administer insulin to diabetic patients, as it could not obtain them from the United States. In the education sector, the embargo prevented Cuba from obtaining educational materials for schools from the United States and, in the transportation sector, railways were affected by the denial of access to train materials and technologies mostly found in the United States. The purchase of construction materials from abroad was also affected by the embargo. 15. The Government indicated that further information would be presented in its response to the Secretary-General on resolution 62/3 on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba, adopted by the General Assembly on 30 October 2007. 16. The Government invoked its sovereign right to denounce the harm that the embargo had caused to its people, the people of the United States, third countries and international law, and indicated that it was more important than ever for the international community to condemn such practices vigorously.