Cuba needs to pay off $270 million obligation in rum

The desperate island country has offered to pay back $270 million in the red to the Czech Republic utilizing rum and pharmaceuticals rather than cash.

The Czech back service said arrangements over how the old obligation will be paid are still in the "early stages," and focused on that it might want in any event part of the obligation to be paid in real money.

"The Cuban side has offered a rundown of products, including medicines and a few brands of rum, to settle part of the obligation," said service representative Katerina Vaidisova.

The Czech Republic imported $17 million worth of rum in 2015. On the off chance that Cuba's full obligation was settled with the soul, the supply would last the nation an expected 15 years.

Vaidisova said the two gatherings were all the while debating precisely the amount Cuba owes. That is on the grounds that the majority of the obligation is numbered in Soviet rubles and must be changed over into a current money.

It's additionally not clear precisely what the Czech government would do with the rum. Most pharmaceuticals can not be utilized as installment on account of stringent European Union controls.

Cuban authorities were not instantly accessible to remark.

Socialist nations frequently utilized products as a type of installment amid the Soviet time. Cuba consistently traded its sugar for Soviet fuel, for instance.

Cuba gathered tremendous outside obligations amid the Cold War. It defaulted on quite a bit of it in the 1980s.

The U.S. restored formal discretionary relations with Cuba a year ago, yet the nation is still cut off of most global financing. It's additionally avoided from the IMF and the World Bank, having pulled back from the associations in the 1960s.

It should settle its obligations - or if nothing else achieve a concurrence on them - before being readmitted into the organizations.

The Paris Club, a casual gathering of rich bank nations, said a year ago that Cuba owed its individuals more than $11 billion.

A few individuals from the club, including the U.K., Australia, Canada and France, concurred a year ago to rebuild bits of their Cuban obligation and wave a few installments. In return, Cuba consented to pay them $2.6 billion throughout the following 18 years.

Russia has discounted 90%, or $32 billion, of Cuba's obligation.