By Laurie Goering, Chicago Tribune.
The Seattle Times. Friday,
November 03, 2000.
HAVANA - Feed a dollar bill into the sleek Spanish-made cigarette machine on
display here at Cuba's big annual trade fair and out pops a surprise: a pack of
Marlboro Lights marked "Made in U.S.A."
The United States may have a 40-year-old trade embargo against its southern
island neighbor, but U.S. products are finding their way here in growing
numbers, though most come in foreign disguise.
At this week's show at Havana's ExpoCuba center, you can't miss the cans of
Pringles potato chips, made in Belgium. ("Nieuw!" crows the display.)
There's a big basket of Mexican-made Kellogg's Corn Flakes, and the
refreshment stands sell Coke, also imported from Mexico.
The farm equipment and industrial section sports Goodyear tires made in
France, Firestones made in Spain and Ford trucks made in Canada. There's even an
Ingersoll Rand Bobcat earthmover which, if a plate inside it is to be believed,
is from North Dakota.
For most of its 18 years, Cuba's annual Havana Trade Fair has been a chance
for the communist island's leading trade allies - Russia, China, Canada and
Spain, among others - to show off their wares. Now, however, with the quiet but
steady invasion of U.S. brands, competitors wonder if U.S. companies can be far
behind.
"We think there's an 18-month to two-year window before those American
politicians wake up and smell the coffee," says Peter Goodwin, vice
president of Canadian Bearings, a Canadian industrial-parts exhibitor whose
company enjoys a Cuban market full of aging industrial machines and free of U.S.
competition.
While this week's fair features everything from Armenian cognac to Canadian
barbed wire and Chinese toilets, it's hard to avoid U.S. brand names. A stroll
through pavilions housing displays by 1,500 companies from 63 nations turns up
plenty of U.S. favorites: Close-Up toothpaste, Vaseline Intensive-Care lotion
and Philips energy-efficient light bulbs among them.
U.S. firms, which are seeking in growing numbers to overturn the long U.S.
embargo against Cuba, would like to see more of their products at the fair. The
embargo, they say, has been ineffective in shifting Cuba's communist government
from power and is robbing U.S. farmers and manufacturers of an attractive nearby
market.
The embargo was eased slightly last month, when Congress voted to allow
sales of U.S. food and medicine to the island starting next year. Fidel Castro,
however, angry that the deal forbids U.S. financing of such sales, has sworn not
to buy a single aspirin or grain of rice.
"The perception is that the day the embargo is lifted, the Americans
will be here overnight," Goodwin said. "But I don't think that's the
case. I think they're just going to get their toes wet at first."
One problem, though, he noted, is something U.S. sellers will eventually
discover.
With the island perpetually strapped for hard currency, "it's easy to
sell here," he said, "it's just hard to get paid."
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