On May 1, 2026, in the indifference of Western governments, including the former, Donald Trump further tightened the suffocation suffered by Cuba since January 3 by giving an ultimatum to all foreign companies and banks operating in the country: they must leave, under penalty of having their financial operations frozen, being banned from the US market, and facing astronomical sanctions by the Office of Asset Control, the US extraterritorial sanctions office.
In other words, the blockade is an act of war against a sovereign country, but also against any company or country wanting to maintain commercial relations with Cuba. The effect is devastating. On May 7, the Canadian company Sherritt, one of the main players in the nickel sector (the country’s second resource after tourism), announced its departure from Cuban territory and repatriation of all its employees. On May 18, the French maritime companies CMA CGM and German Hapag-Lloyd announced the suspension of container deliveries to Cuba. Companies are closing one after the other, leaving hundreds of employees stranded and an entire society on the brink of collapse.
If the blockade against Cuba is an act of war, and arguably the most inhumane and criminal of US extraterritorial law, the commercial and economic aggression of the world’s leading power did not start with Donald Trump coming to power. Indeed, US interference in the economic affairs of third countries is one of the preferred weapons to assert their domination and defend the interests of their companies internationally.
Several US legislations directly apply to French and European companies. In the defense and space domain, for example, any non-US industrialist must comply with the Itar (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations. This results in dependency, pressures, and heavy fines that can penalize European companies.
Since 2019, the report to the National Assembly established by LaREM deputy Raphaël Gauvain at the request of the then-Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, called for action against the vulnerability of French companies and the fact that they “are held hostage by these American procedures, caught between a rock and a hard place in a facade negotiation process, exacerbated by blackmail to access the American market: in the end, they have no choice but to self-incriminate by paying astronomical sums to the American Treasury.” Since then, nothing has been done.
Are we truly powerless against the dominance that the US would like to impose on the world? However, legal levers exist to circumvent this extraterritoriality, at the European and national levels: European regulations against coercion, a law aimed at strengthening anti-corruption measures, notably to stop extraterritorial judicial proceedings, the Sapin 2 law, and the 1968 blocking law.
Why and how should France react? This is the question that we have decided to pose with the Gabriel-Péri Foundation, on Wednesday, May 27, with participants from various backgrounds but with one objective: to defend our sovereignty and international law against the threat the United States poses to the world!
