Georgetown: U.S. business leaders are not interested in seeing Cuba fail they are interested in seeing Cuba succeed, according to President of Guyana-Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM) Haleem Khan
In underscoring his point, Khan said technology giant Cisco Systems would partner with a Cuban university to develop an Internet technology academy while General Electric is working on an aviation and energy deal.
“In the coming months an American hotel executives will take over management of Havana’s landmark Hotel Inglaterra…. Obama’s visit is expected to trigger a cascade of new commerce between the longtime foes as the administration pushes the legal boundaries of the trade sanctions and increasingly renders them meaningless. Before his trip, Obama also lifted restrictions on Cuba’s ability to use the U.S. dollar in international financial transactions,” he explained.
He emphasized that U.S. officials acknowledge that the Cuban government will profit from new commercial ties, but they say small businesses and the island’s people will benefit, too.
Adding that it is clear to the Obama administration that the key to the normalization between the two countries is lifting the decades-long U.S. economic embargo, Khan said Obama believes such a move would improve Cubans’ economy and human rights, but he could not do it without the support of the Republican-controlled Congress.
For now, the GCSM President said that the U.S. government plans to add more commercial flights to Cuba so that more American tourists can legally visit the largest island in the Caribbean. American airlines may fly as many as 110 flights a day to Cuba, good news to those airlines companies. Still, it means little to other U.S. companies.
Since 2014, he said more U.S. companies are allowed to export to Cuba, but not many are making money because of the slow opening up in Cuba. In some sectors, the business goes worse, for example, American food and agriculture exports to Cuba dropped significantly in 2015 than a year before.
Khan explained that more than 3 million tourists came to Cuba last year, boosted by a sharp increase in the number of US visitors, which has surged by almost 40% since Obama ushered in a thaw in diplomatic relations at the end of 2014. American citizens are officially still forbidden to travel here for the sole purpose of tourism, but the sanctioned categories of travelling to “support the Cuban people” and for “people-to-people activities” are vague enough to allow tour operators to thrive.
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