Cuba’s Calling Card

During a news conference at the TT Manufacturers Association’s (TTMA) headquarters in Barataria last week, Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley announced the establishment of the TTFO in Cuba.

"The TTFO will be authorised under Cuban law to promote and facilitate trade between TT and Cuba," he said, noting it will be designed to function as a conduit between TT manufacturers and those State companies authorised to import and sell to consumers.

The office will also be used as a gauge to find out what TT manufacturers can export to Cuba, Valley said. The office will also expand the access to the markets of both Caribbean nations and serve to extend negotiations in the near future to other states in the region.

In an interview on Monday, Ambassador Guerra said while Cuba was renowned around the world for its high quality medical care and well-trained health professionals, this was just scratching the surface of what the Communist island nation had to offer both TT and the wider Caricom region.

Guerra noted that a priority during his tenure in TT will be to establish a good working relationship with the local business community and help them to explore and develop areas of mutual economic benefits.

The ambassador said both his government and the Cuban Chamber of Industry and Commerce stand ready to assist in this regard.

Guerra said the Trade and Industry Ministry has already been supplied with a list of potential commodities which could be traded between TT and Cuba, noting that he looked forward to the the discussions.

Cuba, he said, had a market of eight million people and he was certain that many local businesses would be able to carve out a niche in this market. He identified Republic Bank as one local business that is currently doing well in Cuba at this time.

Valley told businessmen that given the risks inherent in exporting to a new market, the EximBank will provide mechanisms to support local manufacturers in their ventures.

Noting that Cuba was the first Latin American nation that TT had signed a bilateral trade agreement with, Valley said Cuba remains one of TT’s most important economic partners in the region.

Valley said between January to September 2005, the TT-Cuba trade balance stood at $90 million. TT’s prime exports to Cuba are chemicals, iron and steel, fertilisers, pulp and waste paper.

But the TTFO was further strengthened by the passage of the Caricom-Cuba Trade and Economic Cooperation Bill, which was passed in the Senate on Tuesday.

The Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on November 25, 2005 and Caricom can expect to benefit from lower import duties on certain commodities, including critical pieces of medical equipment from Cuba.

Noting that Japan, Mexico and South Korea have already established trade facilitation offices in Cuba, Valley said the TTFO will eventually be expanded to facilitate all Caricom manufacturers wishing to do business there and could serve to deepen both TT-Cuba and Caricom-Cuba trade relations.

According to information provided by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Cuban President Fidel Castro’s administration continues to balance the need for economic loosening against a desire for firm political control.

The CIA said in 2005, the Cuban government strengthened its controls over dollars flowing into the economy from tourism, remittances and trade. The CIA added that external financing has assisted growth in Cuba’s oil, mining, construction and tourism sectors. In 2005, Cuba recorded Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5.2 percent with 68.4 percent of that growth coming from the services sector. The island’s unemployment rate for 2005 stood at 1.9 percent.

Cuba’s primary industries include petroleum, pharmaceuticals, sugar, tobacco, nickel, steel, cement, agricultural machinery and cement.

Valley reiterated that expanding economic ties with Cuba was part of Government’s overall strategy to integrate TT’s economy into that of Latin America.

He explained that this was why the establishment of free trade agreements (FTAs) between Caricom, Canada, the Mercosur nations of Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) and a partial US-TT Tobago trade agreement (for energy products) featured prominently at last week’s 17th Caricom Inter-Sessional Heads of Government meeting in Port- of-Spain.

Valley dismissed suggestions that a TTFO in Havana would harm TT-US relations or that any nation had withdrawn support for TT’s bid to become the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat.

TTMA president Paul Quesnel said nations such as Cuba and Costa Rica provided lucrative markets for local manufacturers and he urged them to make the most of the opportunities which these markets provided.