Reciprocity Should Drive US-Cuba Normalization

Reciprocity Should Drive US-Cuba Normalization

Article By: John Veroneau

Covington & Burling LLP

posted on: Friday, May 23, 2014



Much has been written about current US-Cuba economic relations and

whether the embargo should be ended. However, little has been written

about what principles should shape US policy when the tectonic plates of

US-Cuba relations eventually begin to shift — whenever that might be. A

study released last week by the Peterson Institute for International

Economics nicely fills this void.



The study, entitled, "Economic Normalization with Cuba: A Roadmap for

Policy Makers", was done by Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Barbara Kotschwar

and provides a blueprint for restoring normal economic relations in a

manner that serves the mutual best interests of the United States and Cuba.



The study calls on US policymakers to pursue a new economic relationship

based on reciprocity and avoid a situation as occurred in Russia where

US markets were opened without appreciation that the Russian economy

would become dominated by oligarchs to the detriments not only of US

exporters but the Russian people themselves. The Peterson study urges US

policymakers to assure that, before US tourists start spending millions

in Cuba and before US consumers begin buying imports from Cuba, that US

businesses and workers have reciprocal access to the Cuba market.



Source: Reciprocity Should Drive US-Cuba Normalization | The National

Law Review -

http://www.natlawreview.com/article/reciprocity-should-drive-us-cuba-normalization