By Jane Bussey . jbussey@herald.com. Published Thursday,
March 7, 2001, in the Miami Herald
A Jacksonville-based cargo carrier would like to launch cargo service to
Cuba by mid-April, a spokesman said Tuesday, but the start of regularly
scheduled sailings for the first time in 40 years depends on exporters obtaining
U.S. licenses, outside financing for their goods and Cuban buyers.
Crowley Liner Services, one of the largest common carriers serving the
United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South
America, became the first such company to obtain a license from the Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to operate cargo routes between
the United States and Cuba.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman said that several other cargo carriers
also have applied for licenses.
The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council said that Crowley has 60 current
customers who have or are planning to obtain export licenses from the Commerce
Department or from the Treasury office to sell agricultural products to Cuba.
The council is a New York-based organization that publishes a weekly report
of international business and trade activity with Cuba. Because trade with Cuba
is a sensitive issue, no one would identify the companies, but a council
newsletter said poultry and dairy products would be the main exports.
Crowley Liner spokesman Mark Miller declined to confirm or deny the report,
saying the privately held company did not want to comment because of competitive
reasons. Crowley Liner Services is a subsidiary of Oakland, Calif.-based Crowley
Maritime Services, which had 1998 revenue of $1.1 billion.
``We would, if things fall into place, begin service sometime in the month
of April,'' Miller said. ``The exact start date is contingent on shippers and
their ability to obtain licenses from the government to ship their product.''
It was clear that obtaining the license was a precedent-setting step but did
not ensure that container loads of goods would be headed to Cuba immediately.
And even so, there is no guarantee of doing immediate business with Cuba
because the government has officially taken a hard-line stance on the trade
issue.
In an interview with Associated Press, Vice President Carlos Lage rejected
the latest weakening of the U.S. embargo, saying the country will not purchase
U.S. food and medicine until Washington lifts the remaining restrictions on
trade with Cuba.
``If the blockade is lifted, yes, we will buy. Not only aspirin, but many
other products,'' Lage said. But Lage called the current rules ``humiliating
conditions.''
A law passed by Congress last year approves the exports of food and
medicines. But it bars companies from obtaining financing from U.S. banks or the
U.S. government, such as the Credit Commodity Corp., or the Export-Import Bank.
``That's only one half of the equation,'' said John S. Kavulich, president
of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. ``They can have routes, but they
need products to ship.''
Kavulich said that companies have presented deals to the Cuban government
for a number of months. ``The Cuban government has no shortage of
opportunities.''
By 1992, subsidiaries of U.S. companies shipped $700 million in goods to
Cuba annually. Sales dropped sharply since the embargo was tightened.
The announcement about the cargo carrier comes as Cuban officials insist
that pressure is building against the embargo, but Cuba itself has launched a
crackdown on critics on the island, such as the recent 24-day detentions of two
prominent Czech citizens.
Deputy Foreign Minister Angel Dalmau said that action ``against the boycott
is snowballing. It is simply a matter of time. We are much more sure of our
future than we were five years ago,'' according to The Financial Times.
Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert who also works for the Council on Foreign
Relations, said that Cuba is demanding that if it accept U.S. imports, it be
allowed to export to the United States.
``The broader picture is, we've spent 40 years moving the goal post on them,
they are going to move the goal post, too,'' Sweig said. ``They want the Full
Monty. They don't want the piecemeal approach.''
According to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Crowley will carry
the containers to Cuba on its weekly scheduled service from Port Everglades and
Jacksonville through Mexico's eastern ports of Tampico, Veracruz and Progreso.
The company has estimated it needs 17 containers a week to make the Cuba stretch
profitable. Otherwise the containers will be unloaded at Progreso and
transferred to other carriers, the council said.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 