viernes, 9 de octubre de 2015

U.S. officials are frustrated by lack of progress in trade with Cuba

U.S. officials are frustrated by lack of progress in trade with Cuba
By Nick Miroff October 8 at 5:30 PM

HAVANA — U.S. trade sanctions against Cuba have been in place for 54
years, but never before have the presidents of both countries said the
same thing about them.

Lift the embargo, Raúl Castro says. Lift the embargo, President Obama
says, urging Congress to do so.

Exactly how that is supposed to happen is the emerging point of
contention in a still-fragile relationship marinated in distrust. Nearly
a year has passed since the presidents put the countries on a path
toward normalization, but with Obama out of office in 14 months, their
window of opportunity is shrinking.

After announcing last month the most significant loosening of Cuba
sanctions in decades, the White House says there is little else it can
do without Havana's help. If the Castro government engages more readily
with American businesses, signs new contracts and green-lights more
connections for travel and telecommunications, business interests will
poke so many holes in the embargo that it will fold, engagement
advocates say.

But so far Cuban authorities have demonstrated little appetite for such
"carrots," as Obama has described them, saying the sanctions are still
too big a stick.

Senior U.S. officials say that the full removal of the embargo will only
be possible if Cuba makes democratic reforms, describing embargo
opponents in Congress as "desperate" for gestures from the Castro
government.

A visit to Havana this week by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker
only seemed to underscore how far the governments have to go. With no
new agreements or business deals to announce, the commerce secretary —
the first to make an official visit to Cuba in 65 years — seemed like
one more in the parade of U.S. lawmakers and corporate leaders who have
returned from Havana with little more than rum and cigars to show for it.

"There is much we in the United States do not fully understand about the
Cuban economic system," Pritzker told reporters Wednesday evening at the
end of a 36-hour visit. "I'm here because we need to develop
relationships with each other and start to learn from one another."

Business ties will not be rebuilt overnight, nor in a tit-for-tat way,
she said.

"The president wants to see the embargo lifted. I think the president
recognizes that's going to take time and we're going to have to
demonstrate progress in the relationship, and that both President Castro
and President Obama have a limited amount of time. That's a point
[Cuban] leaders did raise with me," Pritzker said.

"But we're very clear: There are things that have to happen on both sides."

Trade analysts say even less is happening on the Cuban side this year
despite the normalization of diplomatic relations in June and Obama's
latest move authorizing some U.S. businesses to trade with Havana, hire
Cuban workers and establish a physical presence on the island.

Cuba has implemented a roaming agreement with U.S. carrier Verizon and
signed a deal with a New York state-based drug company to market a Cuban
cancer drug.

But other new opportunities remain unfulfilled. The U.S. government has
eased restrictions on sales of goods and services to private
entrepreneurs and cooperatives, but because imports on the island must
be routed through state agencies, Cuba's hairstylists, computer
technicians and restaurateurs continue to bring in American supplies the
old way: in travelers' suitcases.

More notable, analysts say, is the decline of U.S. food exports to Cuba
by more than 40 percent to a projected $150 million for 2015, down from
a peak of $710 million in 2008. Because the U.S. sanctions don't allow
food sales on credit — a norm of international trade — Cuba says it can
get better deals in Brazil, Canada and elsewhere.

When pressed, Cuban officials insist the limits to trade between the two
countries are all on the U.S. side. The trade sanctions have a lot of
teeth left, they say, continuing to ban most Cuban exports, block U.S.
tourism and make banking nearly impossible.

And the threat of U.S. fines continues to squeeze the Cuban economy by
scaring away foreign investors.

At a news conference Thursday organized by Cuba's Foreign Ministry on
the effects of the sanctions, tourism official Maria del Carmen Orellana
said a French real estate investor interested in signing a condominium
deal recently pulled out because his Paris-based bank, PNB Paribas, now
bars its clients from doing business with Cuba. The bank agreed to a
$9 billion fine last year by the U.S. Treasury Department for violations
of economic sanctions related to Cuba, Sudan and Iran.

The steps Obama has taken to date don't go far enough to ease the
stigma, officials said.

"These measures have led to something that is better than what we had
before, and help create an atmosphere for engagement, but they don't
create the conditions for normalization," Cuban Chamber of Commerce
President Orlando Hernandez Guillen said after Pritzker's visit.

John Kavulich, whose U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council tracks
bilateral commerce, called Pritzker's visit this week "premature" and
"ill-timed."

"It devalued the prestige and significance of a visit by a Cabinet
member," Kavulich said. "When a commerce secretary goes to Cuba, it
should be to preside over an agreement that's been reached."

If U.S. businesses don't get a clearer signal about Cuba's intentions,
he said, the government risks losing the momentum built up so far this
year in favor of lifting the embargo.

"There needs to be action to get a reaction," Kavulich said. "Cuba
doesn't trust the United States business community and doesn't trust the
U.S. government, and both sides recognize that. But the Cuban government
needs to demonstrate an interest in commercial relations other than
visits to discuss commercial relations."

Retired Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray, now a trade consultant, said
Cuban officials would "be stupid not to want more trade."

"They know they have to advance as much as possible in the time that
Obama has left," he said. "But Cuba thinks the U.S. can do more. If they
give what the Americans want right now, they won't be stimulated to do
more."

Pritzker said Castro government officials made it clear to her they want
a two-way street — and access to U.S. markets for Cuban goods and
services, most of which are under the control of state companies run by
the military.

An aviation agreement between the two countries that would allow U.S.
airlines to resume regular service is likely to be held up if Cuba
insists its jets be allowed to land in the United States, because U.S.
plaintiffs have won massive judgments against the Cuban government in
federal courts, and Cuban planes could be impounded when they touch down
on American runways.


Nick Miroff is a Latin America correspondent for The Post, roaming from
the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to South America's southern cone. He has
been a staff writer since 2006.

Source: U.S. officials are frustrated by lack of progress in trade with
Cuba - The Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-officials-are-frustrated-by-lack-of-progress-in-trade-with-cuba/2015/10/08/6de973ec-6c6d-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723_story.html

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