Conflict Brews in Cuba Over Sales Ban of Imported Goods

Conflict Brews in Cuba Over Sales Ban of Imported Goods

Reuters

October 03, 2013



HAVANA — The Cuban government appeared headed for its first serious

clash with the island's newly created "non-state" sector of small

businesses over a prohibition on the sale of imported clothing and other

goods.



The decree issued last week potentially affects some 20,000 small

businesses and their employees who sell clothing, hardware and other

goods brought in informally by travelers, some of whom visit the

Caribbean island regularly carrying merchandise from the United States,

Spain and Latin American countries.



Three years ago the government of President Raul Castro, who replaced

his brother Fidel in 2008, opened up retail services to "self

employment" in the form of 200 licensed activities from clowns,

seamstresses, food vendors, taxis and the building trades, to small

businesses such as restaurants, cafeterias, bed and breakfasts and

entertainment.



The government said the measure aimed at absorbing excess state labor,

improving services, eliminating inefficiencies and bringing black-market

activity above ground.



There are now 436,000 self-employed people, of which around 100,000 work

as employees of small businesses, according to the government.



Enterprising residents have taken advantage of some of the categories,

for example seamstress and household supplies salesman, to offer

imported clothing and supplies in greater variety and at lower cost than

the state.



Entrepreneurs, their employees and clients waxed furious over the

clothing sale prohibition this week in the Central Havana district of

the capital where a few dozen vendors had set up shop on a vacant lot to

sell clothing, shoes and undergarments.



"We call on the authorities to reconsider. We have a lot of product and

money invested in this," Justo Castillo, a representative of the

official labor federation which has tried to organize the self employed,

said.



"Banning this means unemployment for these people forcing them to do

whatever. They will move into the black market, return to illegal

activity," he said, as the crowd that had gathered applauded.



Castro has instituted a series of market-oriented reforms to Cuba's

Soviet style economy where the state still employs 79 percent of the 5

million-strong labor force.



Public Clamor



Last week's measure appears aimed at protecting the state's monopoly on

the wholesale and retail sale of imported goods, which has resulted in

widespread black-market activity due to exorbitant prices and shoddy

quality.



The regulation includes a new list of authorized types of self

employment and their descriptions, with the addition of phrases to stop

the resale and importation of goods.



For example, the description of a seamstress now has added, "does not

include the sale of manufactured or imported clothing."



The general public is also up in arms over the measure.



"There goes the chance to buy a pair of shoes or jeans that are

worthwhile," said retiree Ramon, who asked his last name not be used.



The public clamor is so loud that it appears to have reached communist

authorities.



Blogger Yohandry Fontana, who is closely identified with the government,

released a series of tweets this week criticizing the measure.



"Bad news," he said in one of the tweets. "Wouldn't it be easier, I ask,

to approve the sale of imported clothing by the self employed than push

this activity into the black market?"



The new measure has yet to be enforced, at least in Havana even though

authorities say it is now the law of the land.



JosDe Barreiro Alfonso, an adviser to the Ministry of Labor and Social

Security, said in an interview on Thursday with the official Juventud

Rebelde newspaper that vendors would be visited on an individual basis.



"It is an effort to have an individual conversation and gain their

understanding of the law," he said.



Source: "Conflict Brews in Cuba Over Sales Ban of Imported Goods" -

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