Cuba wants to join the Cotonou Agreement, a preferential trade and aid pact with 78 former European colonies.
It is now considering the withdrawal of a request to join a European Union preferential trade and aid treaty with former colonies because of criticism in Europe of its human rights record.
Examples of positive sanctions include preferential tariffs, subsidies, foreign aid, investment guarantees, and preferential taxation of foreign investment.
Similarly, the threat of losing foreign aid or preferential market-access may concentrate minds in the Caribbean.
What is clear is that upward of 30 countries as far away as Indonesia have received some form of aid or preferential deals.
It is set to host a summit meeting of African leaders in September in Beijing, where it will most likely offer new pledges of aid and preferential loans.
At the heart of the U.S. suit are preferential loans, called "launch aid," which European governments have provided to Airbus over the past four decades for the development of the A300, A310, A320, A330, A340 and A380 models.
These come in both tangible and intangible forms; in Western aid and preferential trading terms, in diplomatic prestige, in goodwill that boosts tourism and investment, and in a certain amount of indulgence for the Mubarak government's repression at home.Whenever things go wrong in the Middle East, Western leaders flock to Egypt to show their concern.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and French Minister of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet criticised the perceived preferential treatment for US aid arriving at the airport, though a spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that there had been no official protest from the French government with regard to the management of the airport.
It is also self-evident for the Commission that until this happens and until a number of other conditions from the Dayton Agreement have been met, there can be no question of any formal links between the European Union and Belgrade, any cooperation agreements or any technical aid or preferential trade for Belgrade.
