Things are changing quickly in Cuba. Last week, on November 10, the Cuban government, under President Raul Castro's leadership, launched its most progressive economic reform initiative yet by legalizing the sale and purchase of private property. For Cuba watchers and Castro critics, this was noteworthy given that Cubans have not been allowed to trade real estate since the 1959 revolution.
Having traveled myself to Cuba last year, as part of a Congressional staff delegation, this comes as little surprise; the winds of economic change were already blowing. But for those in the US Congress critical of Cuba's economic policies -- e.g. US Senator Bob Menendez and US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- this may confound. Why the about-face and will it last? It turns out, as illuminated in a 98-page report published this month by the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Cuba's recent economic reforms are indicative of a new resolve. Bolstering this claim, the authors found that "Cuba's reform process is here to stay and the changes are most likely irreversible."
The report, titled "Cuba's New Resolve: Economic Reform and its Implications for US Policy," shows that the economic policy trends in Cuba parallel the very conversations in Congress and throughout US state legislatures, whether it's reducing the numbers of employees on the state payroll, reducing government spending for social safety nets, or supporting small businesses.
In fact, President Castro is spurring new private sector enterprise, enabling Cubans to open small businesses, hire workers, and create farming and manufacturing cooperatives that will function as small businesses. Tea Party types in the US, and proponents of smaller government, should like what Castro is doing. He's cutting one million workers on the state payroll, reducing ration card allocations, and ending some state subsidies entirely. Castro is also decentralizing government by handing over state responsibilities to provincial and municipal leaderships with the aim to build capacity and implement decisions locally.
All of this should make Washington happy. Yet while US President Barack Obama is on board the US-Cuba relationship transformation train, doing more to improve US-Cuba relations than recent predecessors, there are still ample roadblocks in Congress keeping our two countries from increased economic cooperation. Don't forget that Cuba, until recently, was the United States' largest rice export market and the fifth largest export market in Latin America for U.S. farm exports. Furthermore, Cuba holds the potential for $20 billion in trade with America over a three-year term. Our economy could clearly benefit from better relations.
The longer we wait the more ground we lose. Brazil's former President Lula da Silva capitalized on Cuba's appetite for growth, proposed investments in industrial, agriculture and infrastructure projects, including ports and hotels, and an agreement with Brazil's oil company. Venezuela and China are already investing in Cuba's oil industry, and Spain is weighing in with millions in microcredit to boost Cuba's small business industry.
Even our agricultural relationship is not secure. Yes, Cuba continues to be reliant on U.S. agriculture. Since 2002, we have been Cuba's largest supplier of food and agricultural products, with Cuba purchasing several billion dollars worth of US products in the last decade. This agricultural reliance is in jeopardy, however, which puts American farmers at risk. In 2010, U.S. food exports to Cuba dropped to $344.3 million, down from $486.7 million in 2009 (which was down from over $700 million in 2008), according to figures released by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
This is a sign of the times. Cuba, having witnessed strong economic growth in the early 2000s at 11 and 13 percent, is now struggling to make ends meet, slipping below 2 percent in 2010. This month, however, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, announced that Cuba is expected to show a 2.9% increase of its Gross Domestic Product by year end.
All the more reason, then, for the US to pursue potential partnerships with Cuba. The potential is not merely on the natural resources front, but on the human one too. US and Cuba are already cautiously coordinating on areas of mutual interest, like migration, counter-narcotics and disaster preparedness. Other low hanging fruit? Expand cooperation on education, medicine, science and sports through nonpolitical, people-to-people exchanges. This is how we rebuild relations.
"Cuba's New Resolve" concludes by saying that the US can make some important contributions to Cuba's economic reform process by acknowledging that Cuba's reforms are real and by ensuring that Cubans are getting the cash and credit they need to make use of the newfound freedom to start small businesses. Easing the flow of financing, travel and remittances wouldn't hurt either, so too the removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba is clearly on the rise. It is time for the US to rise with it.
Michael Shank is US Vice President at the Institute for Economics and Peace. Follow Michael on Twitter. Follow the Institute for Economics and Peace on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Michael Shank on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Michael_Shank
BTW author of this article should debate his proposal with some cubans in Miami but i strongly advise him to wear flak jacket and helmet (they would probably try to lynch him)
Please see below: 1} Nader.org link (if necessary, cut & paste URL) & 2} Wiki link:
1} http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/455-China-PNTR.html
2} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_normal_trade_relations#U.S._and_China
God willing, we will not now repeat that huge blunder again in Cuba!!
FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE: Cuba's smoke-and-mirror reforms - By José R. Cárdenas- November 7, 2011
The new order restricts people to "ownership" of one permanent residence and one vacation home (as if the average Cuban is in any position to own a second home); all transactions must be approved by the State and the construction industry remains state-controlled; and the regime itself admits this order reflects no backsliding on the preeminence of the State in controlling the country's economic and political systems.
Cubans' ability to "own" property, trade, or leverage their property to build capital will continue to exist at the sufferance of the State. And what the State giveth, the State can taketh away. The bottom line is that, ultimately, all Cubans will really own is a piece of paper that says they own something.
Rather than empowering individual Cubans, the regime's goal in allowing the open trade of houses is to hopefully siphon more Cuban American money into the island's perennially bankrupt economy. With average Cubans on the island too poor to buy or improve their dilapidated dwellings, their hope is relatives in Miami and elsewhere will remit even more cash to the island attempting to improve their relations' situation. Indeed, the cynicism of relying on Cuban exiles to support the Cuban economy has never bothered the Castro brothers in the slightest.
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/11/07/cubas_smoke_and_mirror_reforms
However, what is undeniable, right now, is that, despite its lack of enforcement elsewhere in the world, the US Embargo is finally beginning to have some long-awaited positive effect within Cuba. Furthermore, the Castro brothers' apparent concession that their communist totalitarian regime is a failed one is of substantial internal and international significance to free people everywhere.
Now should not be a time to acquiesce to that dictatorial government's 50-year oppression of its people, by softening our firm resolve. Instead, a US policy that remains steadfast to our core principals of democracy and freedom, for all Cubans, is still the most effective course to promote further positive changes within that still tyrannically-ruled island.
Despite some initial disagreement, there now seems to be a consensus around the figure of a minimum of $1.2 billion as the amount remitted yearly from Cuban Americans to their relatives in Cuba. Of this, the Cuban government assesses about 20 percent in various fees. If Cuban expatriates and their now adult children had not fled to the U.S. and elsewhere, the economy of Cuba would be in far worse shape than it is today. That's one of the many ironies of the Cuban Revolution
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/08/19/an-old-mans-island#
REUTERS: Cuba says U.S. climbs to 5th leading trade partner-HAVANA | Thu Aug 14, 2008
(Reuters) - The United States ranked among communist Cuba’s top five trading partners for the first time in 2007 despite the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, as U.S. agriculture sales increased by $100 million. Trade data for 2007 posted on the Web site of Cuba’s National Statistics Office (www.one.cu) placed the United States fifth at $582 million, compared with $484 million in 2006, including shipping costs.
The United States, which began selling food to Cuba in 2002 under an amendment to the embargo, placed seventh in 2006 and 2005.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/14/us-cuba-usa-trade-idUSN1447847620080814
First, to follow Israel's example of trading a thousand Palestinians for one Israeli soldier and trade five Cuban agents for one US agent caught in Havana, Alan Gross.
Second, remove all restrictions on US travel to Cuba.
First: While the Israeli negotiation of one Israeli for a thousand of Palestinians does display consistency, in the comparative Israeli disregard for Palestinian lives in recent conflicts, I would strongly recommend against its similar adoption, as present or future core US policy in Cuba. Furthermore, for anyone to seriously compare Alan Gross to the five Cuban terrorist agents now in US prisons is as ludicrous as to advocate Cuba's removal from DOJ's State-Sponsored Terrorist Nation status.
Second: Please refer to my comment above on Michael Schank's article.
SAN DIEGO CHANNEL 10 : With American In Cuban Prison, Wife Hopes For Clemency- Alan Gross Convicted Of Trying To Subvert Cuban Gov't - From Jill Dougherty,CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent
The equipment is illegal in Cuba without government permission, but a source close to the case told CNN that "at trial, the defense presented a receipt from Cuban Customs to demonstrate the Cubans were both aware of and approved what Alan brought in."
http://www.10news.com/news/29066339/detail.html
CBS NEWS: Cuban Jewish leader knew imprisoned American-First member of Cuba's small Jewish community admits knowing and talking to American Alan Gross, imprisoned for allegedly smuggling illegal satellite communication devices-By Portia Siegelbaum
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/24/501364/main20036259.shtml