U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and other major U.S. businessmen are in Cuba this week meeting up with government officials, in another slow but steady push to create the conditions to loosen the U.S. embargo on the communist island.
“Since I was last in Cuba 15 years ago, a reform program has reportedly taken 600,000 workers from government payrolls and allowed the number of self-employed entrepreneurs in the country to triple to more than 450,000,” Donohue said in a press release issued by the Chamber last week. “This trip will provide us with a firsthand look at changes in Cuba’s economic policies and whether or not they are affecting the ability to do business there."
Last year the Tampa Greater Chamber of Commerce went on a similar trip. But change has been slow coming from the Obama administration regarding Cuba policy, with the exception of expanding travel for Cuban-American families, expanding remittances, and reinstating "people-to-people" trips that allow more Americans to travel there as well.
Certainly, with the serious issues in Ukraine, Syria and other hot spots, it's not a priority with his administration. At least, not yet.
The U.S. Chamber's trip comes along at the same time that a group of foreign policy heavyweights have written a letter to the president, calling on him to go much further in supporting a "civil society in Cuba." Changes such as expanding the ability of professional organizations to travel there; allowing NGO's and other organizations to be able to lend directly to Cuban farmers and other entrepreneurs; allowing the sale of telecommunications hardware there (including cell towers and satellite dishes); and allowing for Cuban entrepreneurs to participate in internships in U.S. corporations and NGO's.
Among the signatories include John Negronponte, a former Ambassador to Iraq under George W. Bush; former Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman; Andres Fanjul, a member of the Cuban-American family that runs America’s largest sugar producer; and former North Dakota Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan.
Charlie Crist said last week he has filed the paperwork to be able to travel to Cuba later this year. The Democratic gubernatorial nominee says that he thinks lifting the economic embargo could stimulate Florida's economy.
"It’s stuck years ago in a time warp," Crist told a handful of reporters before a fundraiser in downtown St. Petersburg. "People are driving 1950’s Studebakers down there, so if we are able to have better relations with the i˜sland, lift the embargo, have better economic enhancements, look at what that would do for Florida," he said. "All the road construction, all the infrastructure, all the housing that would be necessary. Florida, our Florida, would be the natural launching pad. Talk about a jobs program? It’s a big deal."
This article appears in May 22-28, 2014.