On November 11, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, a Council of Ministers vice president received Thomas Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, on a work visit to the country.
Cuba’s international economic relations, the interest of the U.S. agriculture sector in the island, and obstacles to trade between the two countries caused by the blockade, were discussed during the encounter.
Secretary Vilsack was accompanied by Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley (Oregon); Kurk Schrader (Oregon); and Suzan Delbene (Washington); as well as other representatives from the Department of Agriculture and the Chargé d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis. Participating on the Cuban side were Gustavo Machín Gómez, Ministry of Foreign Relations’ deputy director general for the United States, in addition to other representatives from the ministries of Foreign Relations, Agriculture, and Foreign Trade and Investment.
