US Business Summit Ratifies Interest in Expanding Ties with Cuba
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The holding in Washington of a Cuba-US Business Summit was seen as an example of the interest by the entrepreneurial community and other sectors in the United States in expanding ties with Cuba.
The meeting, organized in Congress on Tuesday by the US-Cuba Business Council, brought together lawmakers, politicians and entrepreneurs, among other sectors that promote the normalization of bilateral relations, Council Chairman Carlos Gutierrez told Prensa Latina.
According to the chairman of the Council, which is attached to the Chamber of Commerce, participants in Tuesday's meeting are very disappointed by the Cuba policy of the Donald Trump administration.
They think that it is a return to the 1960s, said Gutierrez, who is also the former secretary of Commerce of the United States, in reference to the measures taken or announced by the incumbent US Government that affect relations between the two countries.
However, he noted that the support for bilateral rapprochement is strong, above all regarding issues like the lifting of travel bans. 'Cuba is the only country in the world, apart from North Korea, where a US citizen cannot travel freely,' he warned.
He added that another sector that raises interest is that US farmers could grant credits to Cuba to buy food produced in this country.
Granting that kind of financing for agricultural exports to Cuba is an ongoing demand from agricultural sectors in several states, which see Cuba as a nearby market with great potential, but where they are competing with disadvantages.
Although a law that allows selling food to Cuba was approved in 2000, the island nation has been forced to make payments in advance and in cash, without accessing credits, which are offered by other distant countries.
At the meeting, held on Tuesday night at the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that diplomatic mission, Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabañas referred to the business summit.
That meeting was a demonstration that there is an entrepreneurial community in the United States that follows the developments in Cuba closely, he added.
According to Cabañas, it shows that many companies are already present in Cuba and that many others would like to be there, 'in a country that might be not only a neighbor but also a natural market'.
The US-Cuba Business Council describes itself as the main organization of entrepreneurial defense dedicated to strengthening economic and commercial relations between the two countries. / PL
