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Cuba
reaps millions from fair
By Ray Sánchez, Havana
Correspondent. Posted May 31 2007 in the
Sun-Sentinel.
Havana · In the end, Cuban officials
seemed to value the open criticism of the
U.S. trade embargo almost as much as the
millions of dollars' worth of food products
purchased at a trade fair Wednesday.
Some 275 representatives from 114 companies
in 25 states attended the annual fair, the
largest meeting with American business leaders
since convalescing President Fidel Castro
stepped down last summer. Pedro Alvarez,
the head of Alimport, Cuba's food import
company, said in the coming week the gathering
should result in the signing of $140 million
to $150 million in contracts for tons of
wheat, corn, beef, chicken, pork and other
products from the U.S. companies. Officials
signed $118 million worth of contracts on
Wednesday alone.
"Commerce between our countries helps
both Cuba and the United States," said
Pedro Alvarez, Alimport's CEO. "The
same with travel between our countries.
You have to be blind not to see that."
The deals ensured that Cuba buys as much
from U.S. producers in 2007 as it did last
year, when the communist government spent
$570 million for American food and agricultural
products, including shipping and banking
costs.
Participants said attendance was down compared
to fairs held in the past, when Fidel Castro
often mingled with American farm producers.
Castro's successor, his brother Raul, did
not attend the fair, making Cuba Trade Minister
Raul De La Nuez the highest ranking official
in attendance.
But the three-day trade fair, concluded
Wednesday, also became a public forum for
mounting criticism of the U.S. trade embargo
enforced in 1962. Monday's opening session
was attended by a U.S. congressional delegation
seeking to open trade with Cuba that included
Rep. Rosa De Lauro, a Connecticut Democrat
who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee
on Agriculture.
Jim Sumner, president of the Atlanta-based
U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, concluded
the meeting Wednesday by vowing to work
toward "normalized and open commercial
relations" with Cuba.
"When somebody says at the next meeting,
`Maybe we'll have an open relationship one
day that will be true,' I hope we're all
still around and we can come down with some
more Georgia wine and toast."
The Bush administration has made it more
difficult for U.S. agricultural and food
companies to do business in Cuba by imposing
strict payment guidelines and making it
clear to companies that Washington is opposed
to such sales. U.S. sales to Cuba are allowed
on a cash-only basis under a 2000 law creating
an exception to the trade embargo. Since
2001, the island has spent more than $1.5
billion on American farm products, including
hefty transportation, insurance and financing
costs.
David Radlo, the Key West-based president
of Radlo Foods, of Watertown, Mass., said
his firm signed contracts worth tens of
millions of dollars to import Mississippi
catfish and cotton from the southern states
to Cuba. He downplayed the restrictions
on doing business with Cuba.
"In the five years that we've been
selling products to Cuba, the political
hurdles have never hurt," he said.
"We know how to deal now with third
party banks. I think people use the hurdles
as an excuse for not getting a contract.
Hundreds of companies come down every year
but many of them are not prepared to trade
with Cuba."
Ray Sánchez can be reached at rlsanchez@sun-sentinel.com.
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