The trade relations that Cuba has with the rest of the Caribbean are of a strategic character, although these ties can be furthered to exploit their full potential, José Chaple Hernández, director of Trade Policy for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment (Mincex), noted this Friday in Havana.
Chaple stressed that the Greater Caribbean was the main trading partner of the island between 2014 and 2015, representing 80% and 72% of Cuban trade in the region, respectively.
Trade relations with all ACS members exceeded 5 billion dollars in 2014; the following year the figure was more than 3 billion dollars, the Mincex official told reporters, in the context of the 7th Summit of the Association of Caribbean States, being held in Havana.
The main trade partners of our country in the region are Venezuela and Mexico, which feature among the island’s ten largest trade partners worldwide.
Medicines, steel billets, chemical reagents, rum and tobacco, are some of the products that Cuba exports to the area. In turn, the island imports fuels, herbicides, beer, canned foods, groceries, electrical appliances, among other goods, Chaple explained.
With the enactment in 2014 of Law no. 118 on Foreign Investment in Cuba, we have received interest from ACS countries to participate as partners to invest and do business on the island, he noted, while highlighting that some 20% of current investments come from ACS members.
In this regard, he noted the interest shown by business delegations from Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and Guatemala.
Mexican companies are initiating the first steps to start operating at the Mariel Special Development Zone, and progress in being made regarding the interests of businesses in the Greater Caribbean that have visited the island, added Chaple, who served as Alternate Representative of Cuba to the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) in Uruguay.
Regarding the participation of Caribbean countries in the annual Havana International Trade Fair, he noted the hope to increase their presence, taking into account the commercial and business opportunities offered by the event.
