By Michael Weissenstein
HAVANA (AP) — The Havana
International Trade Fair is where
Cuba puts the best face on its
struggling economy.
There are state-run restaurants
stocked with fresh food;
shiny displays of electric motorcycles
from traders in Panama;
dozens of Cuban government
companies offering goods from
cigars to farmed shrimp.
One dark spot this year was
the American section, where
the U.S. presence has shrunk
from dozens of companies during
the Obama administration
to a handful today. Some say
they may not last another year
of Trump administration sanctions.
After then-President Barack
Obama’s 2014 announcement of
detente with Cuba, the annual
trade fair was swarmed with
American businesspeople hunting
opportunities. There were
dozens of U.S. companies, state
trade offices and associations,
including the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. Cuban-American
businesspeople prowled the
aisles, discussing the possibility
of a return to the island after
decades in exile.
The unprecedented boom
didn’t last long, as companies
began to realize the difficulty of
doing business in Cuba, where
a centralized bureaucracy must
sign off on all foreign investment,
and American business is
particularly sensitive.
But the American presence
started shrinking in earnest
after President Donald Trump’s
2017 announcement that he was
reversing Obama’s opening to
Cuba, following by two years of
increasingly tough sanctions on
Cuba and its closest ally, Venezuela.
This year, Cuba has found it
harder to do business internationally.
The U.S. is pressuring
banks to cut ties with the island,
and sanctioning tankers that
bring oil from Venezuela.
There are sporadic shortages
of common products, gasoline
and diesel, and a perennial government
cash crunch has worsened.
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Jay Brickman, vice president
of Cuba services for Crowley
Maritime, a major Florida-based
global shipper, said the company
had seen its business with
Cuba drop roughly 20 percent
this year.
An exception in the U.S. trade
embargo on Cuba allows American
companies to sell food to
the communist government,
and Crowley moves most of the
soybeans, chickens and other
agricultural products that travel
from the U.S. to Cuba.
Looking out onto the mostly
empty American section of Pavilion
7 at ExpoCuba, a 30-year-old
fairground and convention center
on the outskirts of Havana,
Brickman said he fondly remembered
his first Havana trade fair,
in 2001, after the U.S. legalized
the sale of agricultural products
to Cuba.
He said there were hundreds
of American companies, then-
Minnesota Gov. and former prowrestler
Jesse Ventura, even
American cows brought in to
A model helps to promote the Spanish company Seragro
at the Havana International Trade Fair, in Havana, Cuba,
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. The trade fair is where Cuba puts
the best face on of its struggling economy.
Associated Press / Ismael Francisco
sell Cuba on the benefits of U.S.
livestock.
With the exception of the
Obama years, the last two decades
have not lived up to that
promise, Brickman said.
“It’s a lot more ebb than flow,”
he said. “The spirit of all that
began to fade away.”
During Trump’s presidency,
Cuba has been looking to buy
farm products from countries
beside the U.S., and Crowley’s
business to Cuba has been dropping
to the point where its sustainability
is in question.
US business sees dwindling
prospects in Cuba
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