Trading links with Cuba

IN THE need to expand overseas markets for their products, a group of Trinidad and Tobago manufacturers, together with TIDCO and representatives of Republic Bank, recently visited Cuba on an exploratory mission. Having made the contact, having explored the opportunities, having discussed the possibilities of opening up trading links with Castro’s country, the success of the venture, of course, will now depend on the strength of follow-up action. In the first place, the mission must be credited for its optimism and open-mindedness since Cuba remains a Communist dictatorship under Fidel Castro and is still considered a pariah nation by the United States, some other democratic countries and international organisations. Indeed, on the face of it, the difference in systems seems forbidding, where one country operates a centrally planned economy with the productive capacity controlled largely by the state while the other subscribes to the doctrine of free enterprise in which individual initiative is the key to  progress.

However, in the era of globalisation and free trade, and long after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, the world has entered an open economic mode in which isolationism is anathema and countries avoid the prevailing movement at their own peril. China, opening itself to foreign investment and free trade, with membership in the WTO, understands this; this eastern giant now boasts of the world’s fastest growing economy. Having long lost the material support of the Russians, Cuba has no other choice now than to follow suit, seeking investment and trading links in the region and rest of the world. So that inspite of its centralised system, Cuba has begun to liberalise its economy, making the changes that would facilitate the inflow of private investment and wider trading connections. The transformation would not have come easy and the outcome of the recent TT trade mission should indicate the extent to which the Cuban government has adjusted.

One positive initiative taken is the plan between the TTMA and the Cuban Chamber of Commerce to set up a company in Cuba to help TT manufacturers with the distribution of their products within the Spanish speaking country. According to Anthony Hosang, TTMA president, this is a crucial move. He explained: “We realized the way business is structured here, only certain state agencies had licenses to bring in particular products which they then distributed for other companies. We realized that to allow us to trade freely, as freely as the Cuban will be able to trade in Trinidad, we needed to have a Trinidad and Tobago Trading Company that would have full licensing and distribution authority.” The next step, he said, is to formulate the terms and conditions under which the TT manufacturers would like to operate. Brian Charles, Vice President of Marketing at TIDCO said TT was also reaching out to Cuba because of that country’s strength in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals. As a result, Cuban manufacturers in this area have been invited to participate in the proposed Waller Field industrial project. TIDCO has also signed an agreement with a Cuban investment promotions firm, the Centre for Investment Promotions, which would facilitate the sharing of legal, economic and technical information between the two countries. Because of this Trade Mission, the prospects for establishing mutually valuable trading links between TT and Cuba seem quite promising. Indeed, this initiative should set a pattern with TT missions visiting other countries of the Hemisphere in anticipation of the coming of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. The markets will be open by 2005, but we could begin selling our products from now.