Cuba - US Rapprochement moving forward

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry received Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca and other delegation members at midday, February 18

Washington.— If you ask anyone in this city buzzing with politicians, advisors and analysts, what more is needed to continue advancing the process of the normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S., you will most likely hear: momentum.If the first push came on December 17, 2014, then the White House set more wheels in motion on February 18 with the announcement that President Barack Obama will visit Cuba at the end of March, to give his seal of approval to a process which has become one of the current administration’s most historic foreign policy moves.

As news of the President’s impending visit spread across the globe, the Institute of Peace in Washington – founded by Ronald Reagan in 1984, barley a year after the U.S. invasion of Grenada – hosted the first Cuba Consortium Conference.

Created last year by the bi-partisan group The Howard Baker Forum, the Consortium brings together companies, non-profit organizations, investors, academics and businesspeople, who support normalization of relations with the island.

Over the course of nine hours, senior officials of the Obama administration, academics and businesspeople made their way in and out of the ultra-modern building, from where the Lincoln Memorial can be seen. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who recently hosted a Cuban delegation led by Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, recalled her trip to Havana last October stating, “We learned that in Cuba – as in many of our other trading partners around the world – it is necessary to work with state-owned enterprises in order to support the local private sector.”

The latest round of changes made by the Departments of Commerce and Treasury to trade regulations provide a slight opening for increased interaction between the two countries, however their impact is limited due to blockade restrictions which remain in force.

Rodrigo Malmierca highlighted three key aspects of the policy which Obama still has the power to change: permitting the island to use the dollar in international financial transactions, authorizing Cuban exports to the U.S. and allowing U.S. companies to invest in other sectors besides telecommunications.

Experts spent a considerable amount of time discussing the complex framework of laws which make up the U.S. blockade.

Responding to a question from Granma, Andrea Gacki, Treasury Department specialist was unable to specifically identify the law which prohibits Cuba’s use of the dollar in international transactions. Regarding other executive measures Obama could adopt to reduce the financial persecution of the island, which has cost Cuba billions of dollars in lost revenue and has led to the sanctioning of banks in third countries, she noted that while not wanting to speculate, the issue is being investigated.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack criticized the blockade, noting that it restricts opportunities for trade between Cuba and the United States.

After highlighting his country’s interest in Cuba’s organic and urban farming practices during his visit to Havana last November, Vilsack noted that opportunities in this sector are also negatively impacted by the blockade.

He stated that his department is looking to identify business opportunities through a fund to which several U.S. agricultural companies voluntarily contribute.

In accordance with current laws, the fund cannot use federal resources to explore business opportunities with the island, as is common practice, thus obstructing U.S. companies’ access to the Cuban market.

Despite Congress approving a law in 2000 authorizing sales of agricultural products to Cuba - although under harsh conditions for the island, including having to pay in cash in advance - Vilsack noted a recent decline in sales.
Nonetheless, Cuba has purchased around five billion dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products over the last 15 years, given competitive prices and the proximity of the two nations.

However, according to the latest statistics from the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, an organization which monitors bilateral trade, the island’s purchases fell from $290 million dollars in 2014 to $120 million in 2015. Both figures are a far cry from the $710 million dollars reached in 2008.

A short distance from the Institute, at the State Department, John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State received Malmierca and seven members of the accompanying delegation at midday, February 18.

This is the second time a Cuban minister has visited Washington since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations July 20, last year, when Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla inaugurated the Cuban Embassy in the capital - another chapter in the two countries’ long and complex process toward the normalization of relations.

During the encounter, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thomas Donohue, was asked when the process will be completed, to which he replied that, 20 years from now, the two countries will still be searching for ways to improve business exchanges.

That said, the momentum needed to end the blockade, the main obstacle to Cuba’s development and the normalization of relations, can’t come too soon.

Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications & Speechwriting Ben Rhodes confirmed what Cuban experts have been stating from the very beginning: Obama still has broad executive powers to make further and more substantial modifications to blockade policy.

Rhodes criticized those who support the continuation of the blockade as a way to achieve the country’s foreign policy aims toward Cuba.

Speaking to the members of the Cuba Consortium, Rhodes noted that while the policy may have had relevance in the past, the island is changing, also pointing out shifting attitudes among some radical Cuban Americans in favor of an end to the blockade.

Rhodes noted that more U.S. citizens are traveling to island and seeing that Cubans also want to improve relations, thus posing the question: Why support a policy overwhelmingly rejected by the population?

The Presidential advisor stated that the current administration is reviewing other potential regulatory changes that could be made within the existing legal framework.

He commented that the U.S. has yet to connect its new policy toward Cuba with transformations underway in the country, in order to establish businesses and have an impact.

Stating that he still believes it is possible to do more before the end of this administration, to generate the necessary momentum to definitively end the blockade.

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