Pascal Fletcher reports that Miami’s businesses may be threatened by the possible lifting of the 47-year-old trade embargo on Cuba. Bills before the US Congress propose lifting restrictions on travel by Americans to the island and freeing up farm trade, boosting hopes among opponents of the Cuba embargo that more curbs might be significantly relaxed before the year end.
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce is afraid that the city could face “unfair” competition from state-subsidized Cuban cigar, citrus, and rum exports. Its chairman, Bruce Jay Colan, said the business sector of Miami — located 150 miles from Cuba and with its strong Cuban American community — needed to address, and be prepared for, this new reality.
The new report, entitled “The Business Impact of a Post-Embargo Cuba,” portrayed Miami, with its “geography and demography,” as being ideally placed to gain from more US-Cuban trade. “Miami should logically benefit more from this increased trade than any other area within the United States,” it said, adding Cuba offered investment opportunities in infrastructure, technology, tourism, light industry, and housing. The article states that the Cuban-American community sees the changes as positive: “Cuban American business executives, many of them working in large national and multinational enterprises, could use their personal and family contacts to ‘carry the flag’ of US business to the island.”
However, when considering the possible gains for Cuba, as well as the competition Florida businesses would face, the chamber finds problems: “Cuba could simply dump products such as cigars, citrus and rum, without any regard to production costs or price, to generate hard currencies.” The chamber also sees Cuba taking tourists and some cruise ship business away from Miami. “Miami may see the loss of some cruise ships which could be repositioned to Havana as their home port, and a reduction in tourism,” the report said. “Other industries, such as companies engaged in growing sugar and winter vegetables may also be negatively affected.”
It seems that free-market economics can be complicated indeed.
For full article, see http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cuba/cuba.php?news_id=16830&start=0&category_id=5
Photo: Keith Levit photography at http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/TCU1071.php?res=11
