Span/Eng/Nat XFA American entrepreneurs eager to do business in Cuba spent the weekend exploring possibilities for future investments on the communist island if the U-S embargo is ever lifted. Cuba's new foreign trade minister said what the island really needed was an ability to trade with its closest and most natural trading partner - the United States. The Americans arrived in Cuba on Friday from Cancun, Mexico, where they had met senior Cuban officials. The delegates came from a wide range of business concerns, including Caterpillar farm equipment and the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company. The representatives said they favoured moves in Congress to ease the trade sanctions the United States first imposed 38 years ago. Congress is looking at measures to allow sales of foodstuffs and medicine to the island. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Right now Congress is debating lifting the embargo for food and medicine and here we have 65 American executives who are essentially voting with their feet in favour of doing business with Cuba." SUPER CAPTION: Kirby Jones, Alamar Associates (Conference Organiser) SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "The hundreds of companies that make all the products that are in our supermarkets are all potentially available and then you have to consider how do the products get here and there are shipping lines and ports that are involved. How do you get paid? Then are banks involved - it could have a much greater effect." SUPER CAPTION: Kirby Jones, Alamar Associates (Conference Organiser) On Friday, Cuba's new Foreign Trade Minister - Raul de la Nuez - gave the Americans a rundown on the changes that have occurred in the Cuban economy over the past decade. That's since the break-up of the Soviet Union - once the Caribbean island's primary source of aid and trade. The minister said he viewed positively ongoing moves in the U-S to ease the trade sanctions. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "On account of the embargo, we believe that U-S business people are missing opportunities in Cuba. Each day, European companies and Canadian companies, and from other countries, are filling the spaces not taken by U-S companies." SUPER CAPTION: Raul de la Nuez, Minister of Foreign Trade SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "It makes no sense to buy rice from Asia, if we could buy it from the United States. It makes no sense to buy machinery from Europe, if we could buy it in the United States." SUPER CAPTION: Raul de la Nuez, Minister of Foreign Trade After meeting the minister, the business people broke up into smaller groups for visits with representatives in different sectors, such as biotechnology, tourism, agriculture and communications. Vidal G. Martinez, the Commissioner of the port of Houston, said once the embargo was lifted, his team could provide advice on handling different types of cargo. Located across the Gulf of Mexico from Havana, Houston has a huge port and sophisticated infrastructure that would likely handle much of the cargo sent from Cuba to the United States. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "Cuba is still one of the largest economies in the Caribbean. The port of Houston already is a dominant player in the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean, and we're going to stay vigilant over the largest economy in the Caribbean right now. When, and if, it opens there is going to be trade, there are going to be trade routes that are going to be developed, and we are going to stand ready to help do whatever is necessary to move world commerce into Cuba, and move their goods into the world." SUPER CAPTION: SUPER CAPTION: Vidal G. Martinez, Commissioner of Port of Houston The previous summits had been organised by Alamar Associates, a Washington consulting firm. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/4483ffb9549f074594636c6994a04da4 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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