Foreign groups paying expenses at summit
By Tracey Eaton / The
Dallas Morning News. Friday | June 8, 2001
HAVANA – Spend a few days in Cuba but don't spend any money. That's the
challenge for several dozen American business people staying in Havana this
week.
Under the strict U.S. ban on trade with the Communist regime, Americans can
travel to the island but aren't allowed to spend any money in Cuba unless they
meet certain U.S. Treasury requirements.
A senior State Department official said that the U.S.-Cuba Business Summit
that began on Wednesday in Havana "clearly circumvents" those Treasury
requirements.
Participants' claim that they aren't spending any money in Cuba "doesn't
pass the giggle test. You can't say it's true without laughing," said the
official, who requested anonymity.
Nonsense, summit organizers say. Non-U.S. firms and Cuban organizations paid
for participants' expenses in Cuba, making the event legal under U.S. law,
summit chairman Kirby Jones said.
Mr. Jones, who has been traveling to Cuba since the 1970s, founded the
U.S.-Cuba Business Summit five years ago. In past years, Cuban President Fidel
Castro has mingled with participants and posed for photographs.
"No other forum offers you this opportunity to spend several days in
Cuba learning directly from Cuban business counterparts and representatives of
companies already doing business in Cuba," says the event's promotional
material.
"The whole trip exceeded my wildest expectations," one participant
wrote afterward.
Mr. Jones said Americans can attend under a Treasury provision allowing "fully
hosted" trips to Cuba. The idea is simple: A non-U.S. entity foots the
bill.
In this case, all participants' costs and expenses – "including
meals, lodging, transportation, visas, entry or exit fees and gratuities" –
are being paid by DESOFT, a Cuban joint venture company, and "a consortium
of additional international firms, none of which is subject to U.S.
jurisdiction," said Daniel Waltz, of the law firm Patton Boggs in
Washington, D.C. He investigated the legality of the trip for Cristobal
Investment and Financial Services in Florence, Italy.
To attend the event, participants paid Cristobal $3,450. Cristobal, Mr.
Waltz said, "will not use any of the money it receives to pay for costs
incurred in Cuba." Nor will Cristobal reimburse DESOFT or any of the other
international firms hosting the event, he said.
Asked why these other companies would be willing to pay the Americans'
expenses, Cristobal vice president Raffaello Pellegrini said foreign companies
already doing business in Cuba are interested in making contact with the
Americans.
A construction company, for instance, would like to get to know Americans
because if the trade ban is lifted, the company's best customers will likely be
Americans, Mr. Pellegrini said.
One American participant, asked to explain who was paying his expenses in
Cuba, said he didn't really understand how it all works.
"It's like the federal tax code. It's not intended to make sense to a
lay person," he said.
Treasury Department officials had no immediate comment on whether summit
particpants are complying with the law.
Not all the participants were traveling under the "fully hosted"
rules. Some said they had permission from the Treasury Department to spend money
in Cuba. One of those was Max Fletcher, president of H&R Sales, a food
distribution company in Texas. He said he hopes the United States lifts the
trade ban so he can do business in Cuba.
© 2001 The Dallas Morning News | 