Ideology No Obstacle to Greater Cuba-Caribbean Economic Ties

Global Insider: Ideology No Obstacle to Greater Cuba-Caribbean Economic Ties

By The Editors, on 03 Sep 2013, Global Insider



Last month, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina Gonzalez held

talks in Havana with Bahamas Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell. In an

email interview, Gerardo González Núñez, professor of economic and

administrative sciences at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico,

explained Cuba's economic relations with other Caribbean nations.



WPR: What are Cuba's economic priorities in the Caribbean in terms of

countries and sectors?



Gerardo González Núñez: Economic relations between Cuba and the

Caribbean have not been very stable or large-scale. Trade between Cuba

and the Caribbean has been dominated by the exchange of petroleum

products and manufactures in the area of electronics, metals and

chemicals. Countries that have been the main players in this trade have

been Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic. Technical

cooperation in the area of human resource development has been more

meaningful, with emphasis on the fields of health and sports. Students

from several islands in the Caribbean have graduated from school in

medicine and other health professions in Cuba, and Cuba has provided a

remarkable level of assistance to Haiti in the medical field. These are

the fields that will shape Cuba's priorities in the future.



WPR: How does Cuba's need for geopolitical allies affect its negotiating

stance in the region?



Núñez: The fact that Cuba is in the geopolitical sphere of influence of

the U.S., the hemispheric power with which Cuba has shared more than 50

years of confrontation, has been one of the factors that has influenced

Cuban foreign policy. Cuba has managed its policy according to its

security interests, which it understands as deterrent actions and not

domination of other states. This circumstance makes the countries of the

region very sensitive to the consequences of the U.S.-Cuba dispute, not

only because they are located in the immediate geographic context in

which tension occurs between the two countries, but also because of

their dependence on the United States.



WPR: What areas provide the most promising opportunities for closer

ties, and what are some of the challenges?



Núñez: The development of Cuba-Caribbean relations in the areas of trade

and economic and technical cooperation points to a considerable degree

of complementarity between Cuba and its neighbors in the region, and has

shown that differences in ideology and political orientation do not

represent obstacles to cooperation. The history of relations between

Cuba and the Caribbean suggests that the best opportunities for future

cooperation are in the areas of tourism, transportation, natural

disaster mitigation and environmental protection. In the purely trade

and investment fields, the possibility of all parties' developing closer

and more profitable ties faces the great challenge of the condition and

compatibility of the Cuban economy with the economic processes within

the other countries of the region.



Source: "WPR Article | Global Insider: Ideology No Obstacle to Greater

Cuba-Caribbean Economic Ties" -

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/13190/global-insider-ideology-no-obstacle-to-greater-cuba-caribbean-economic-ties