FEATURE ARTICLE: June 2000 (No. 9)
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Like China, Prepare for a Cuban Gold Rush -- from Food Imports to Internet technology
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Prepared by Michael Fjetland, Chief U.S. Counsel ,
International Legal GroupTM, P.C.Edited and published by PANGAEACommunicationsTM
Significant global legal and technology changes are happening currently. In the case of Cuba it could mean opening trade doors between the U.S. and Cuba that have been welded shut for the last 40 years. Even possessing a famous Cuban cigar is illegal in the United States, while cigars in general are legal.
The U.S. Congress is finally listening to the screams of their constituents -- and are in the process of amending decades old sanctions laws against Cuba -- the sleeping Caribbean colossus which lies a mere 90 miles off the American mainland. Major demands by American agriculture to legally sell their rice and food products to Cuba are causing even rock-hard conservative Republican leaders to morph from diehard opponents to eager sponsors almost overnight. This breach of the Cuban version of the Berlin Wall will most likely be the battering ram that opens the doors wide to further U.S. investment into Cuba. It could also end up opening up trade between the U.S. and North Korea, Iran and Libya as fresh political winds suddenly are beginning to stir during this key U.S. Presidential election year. Such 21st century politics could have a ripple effect worldwide.
After four decades why is Congress seriously considering changing the law to allow legal trade with Cuba?
After four decades why is Congress seriously considering changing the law to allow legal trade with Cuba? The U.S. has long traded with Communist controlled China -- and before that, the Communist controlled Soviet Union. In the mid-90s it opened trade with communist controlled Vietnam -- then 'why not trade with Cuba' seems to be the real question. For years, Europe, Central and South America, and Asian countries have done business with Cuba, investing in modern tourist hotels that try to recapture the aura of Ernest Hemingway's Cuba and other ventures -- while the U.S. has clung to its isolationist strategy that was supposed to defeat Castro. Not doing business with Castro because he is a Communist made little sense when the U.S. was readily doing business with other Communist countries.
The American isolation strategy has failed for forty years and needs to be changed to fit modern reality.
The American isolation strategy has failed for forty years and needs to be changed to fit modern reality. It could be said to be hypocritical to openly promote trading with Vietnam and China, two Communist controlled governments with whom the U.S. had two Asian Wars (Korea and Vietnam) while denying trade with Cuba because it is Communist -- a country in which we sponsored a brief and unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion -- small potatoes compared to the Vietnam and Korean conflicts.
American rice and grain farmers see Cuba as a large and vital market they need to keep afloat.
American rice and grain farmers see Cuba as a large and vital market they need to keep afloat. Cubans can't grow enough on their own to satisfy the needs of its 11 million residents, 25% of whom are under the age of 15.
US farmers are not the only potential beneficiaries. Because Cubans still drive 1950's automobiles and have yet to be tempted by internet connected computers, designer clothes and countless other capitalist delights offered by Europe, their Latin brothers/sisters and elsewhere, then Cuba could be the next global gold rush for businesses scrambling to be the ones who sell the 7 million Cuban adults new cars, PCs and internet services, clothes, food, etc. It would allow Americans to invest in new profit-making Cuban ventures (acquiring the largest stock of 1950's vintage American cars for resale into the US as collector's items would be one Cuban business worth investing in).
It won't happen overnight; but if Congress removes the sanctions it could result in a flood of American businesses and lawyers very soon jumping on airplanes to Cuba, to join Europeans, Latin American and others already doing deals in Cuba. Those who are positioned early in Cuba could have an incredible advantage when Cuba eventually adopts the China/U.S. free market economy that has been proven by the U.S. and China to equally enrich capitalist and communist systems alike. Such a change would enrich the Cuban people like it has the ordinary men and women of China who care more about making money and travel than dull party meetings and tired dogma.
Besides profiting from the trade we could resolve our political differences more easily because of those relationships that are established over time.
Unlike the Cuba sanction policy, the U.S. policy with China, starting with Nixon, was based on the belief that if we end their isolation and engage them in business we will know each other better -- and besides profiting from the trade we could resolve our political differences more easily because of those relationships that are established over time. In fact this has been proven in the years since Nixon opened our trade and contacts with China. Such a policy has created a sea change in China. Construction is booming across the country on new projects and starting with a lady who made her first million selling eggs, there are now over a million millionaires in China. This policy has lead to US/China student interchange and now elections are being held at local levels in China, all stemming from this policy of trade contact with the U.S. and European trade partners.
When I first went to China in 1982 everyone wore blue and made $30/month, like in Cuba. Now I know Chinese global entrepreneurs who shuttle between continents as routinely as people commute to work -- importing gems and countless other products. They act similar to Americans and Europeans and think like entrepreneurs, not like communist party officials. The same could happen to the people of Cuba, if we traded with them.
Why should they be denied access to adequate food because we don't like their leader?
If the US Congress abolishes the Cuban trade sanctions law, further contact between the U.S. and Cubans will lead to changes for the better in Cuba -- including improved diets for the 25% of Cubans 15 or under who have no idea what lies just 90 miles beyond their shores. Why should they be denied access to adequate food because we don't like their leader? Would it make sense for China not to trade with the U.S. because they don't like our leaders -- who are always asking for more Chinese reforms?
The U.S. can dismantle an outdated law and discard a failed policy of hypocrisy.
By letting American farmers and entrepreneurs join the rest of the world in selling Cuba the food and other goods that we take for granted, the U.S. can dismantle an outdated law and discard a failed policy of hypocrisy. By tearing tear down one of the last Berlin Walls still remaining in this world, Congress has a chance to build bridges to our isolated Cuban neighbors instead of burning them.
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This article is published by PANGAEACommunications(tm) 630 Ninth Avenue/Suite 1000 New York, New York 10036 USA. Phone: 212-445-8580 Fax: 212-445-2542 Email: bureaucrat@pangaea.net -- in cooperation with Michael Fjetland, Chief U.S. Counsel International Legal Group, P.C., in Houston, Texas USA.
Michael Fjetland, Chief U.S. Counsel
International Legal Group, P.C.
3730 Kirby, Suite 1200
Houston, Texas 77098 USA
Tel: (713) 213-5080
Fax: (713) 622-1144
E-mail: International-Legal-Group@law.com
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