Cuba Signs Deals With Nine US Companies At Trade Fair

[Osolomia]

3 Nov 2003

HAVANA (AP)--Cuba reasserted its openness to U.S. business Monday by signing contacts with nine companies at the island's largest trade fair.

... After signing a grain deal with Cargill Inc. (CRG.XX) Vice President Jim Bohlander, Alvarez said that $4 million contract "is one more step in the normalization of relations" between the two countries.

... Interest in the new market just offshore has contributed to a growing call by U.S. farm state lawmakers to abolish the 42-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

... Cuban officials say 153 U.S. business people were among the 1,293 participants from 49 countries at the fair - and they were surely among the most heavily promoted by the hosts.

The event occurs a day before an expected U.N. General Assembly condemnation of the U.S. embargo and after the U.S. House and Senate both voted to suspend enforcement of tight restrictions on travel to Cuba - a measure Bush Administration officials have threatened to veto.

More...
http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2003110323170003&Take=1

[madrchsod]

1. guess what..

when cargill speaks ,people listen. bush will get a call and karl will find some way to get georgie`s foot out of his mouth.....

[Osolomia]

2. If Bush vetos he loses the Cub-Am vote, lose that you lose Florida

Or so popular political theory goes. That's why all the Dem candidates are also pandering to this extremist minority in Florida.

It's not just Cargill, just about every major US corporation has been frothing at the mouth for years to do business in Cuba. Every CEO and then some has been there in recent years laying the groundwork and are ready to rumble the day the rest of the USA gets its head screwed on right.

[Judi Lynn]

5. This should be signifigant, found in your article

Michael J. Lanahan of Jacksonville, Florida, agreed to sell about $5.5 million worth of yellow pine timber and said it was his fourth contract in Cuba.

"You have a lot of friends in Florida, and we appreciate your business," he told Alvarez.

These business people, who employee lotsa other Americans, have been going about their business quietly, all along.

This Floridian, Lanahan, and people like him in Florida should start organizing AGAINST the embargo and travel ban.

An organized resistance could blow the "exile" Florida banana republic out of the water, no doubt about it. They should be seen as the frauds and squatters they are.

[Osolomia]

17. This trade fair is "organized resistance" against the embargo

and there's been a lot of it going on lately! What a shame the leading Dem prez contenders aren't part of it.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Shows you how little stock they must put in polls

because polls indicate a majority of Americans favor both removing the travel ban and the embargo, as well as a growing number of younger Cuban-Americans.

You'd think someone besides Dennis Kucinich would simply take the "leap of faith" and announce he/she's not going to lie down for the Cuban "exiles'" and that they can go pound sand, while Americans start traveling back and forth to Cuba. We should be setting up all the business arrangements Cuba would find useful for mutual benefit, and for the improvement of the quality of life for Cubans, instead of letting right-wing gibbering idiots yammering on to us about the "Great Satan" to our South.

[Judi Lynn]

10. We can afford to lose this kind of baloney!

(snip)...narrow-mindedness and intolerance are driving events in the streets of Little Havana. It's civil disobedience that has nothing to do with commitment to liberty and everything to do with exacting political vengeance and reclaiming lost wealth, power and privilege. It's hard to see any commitment to democracy in a movement that violently threatens second-generation Cuban Americans who disagree with its views.

As an immigrant, I should be inspired by the Cuban exiles' political clout, but I am not. I do not see them as role models for empowerment. Elian's saga has nothing to do with immigrants' efforts to gain equal access to the American dream. If anything, the Cuban exiles' actions reveal a stubborn refusal to assimilate into America's democratic culture.

And their friends -- Miami's mayor who virtually cleared the way for civil mayhem and all the politicians blinded by votes and campaign contributions -- are equally to blame for the warping of due process and U.S. foreign policy. (snip)

(snip) Let us hope that the poll results also reflect a public that has grown weary of the Cuban exile agenda, and the politicians who feed on it and enable it to wield an undue and corrosive influence on American politics. (snip/)

http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/6.07/000407-cubanexiles.html

[leesa]

19. I wonder if Cuba is prepared to be screwed over by American big business?

That's what started the whole Castro thing to begin with. Or will the rich just park their money there.

[Say_What]

3. 71 American firms ignore Cuban embargo, flock to Havana for trade fair

71 fimrs saying f*ck you to Bush!! Wonder if this guy is getting death threats from Miami :evilgrin:

<clips>

HAVANA -- Selling mojito and daiquiri mixes to Cuba may seem a little like peddling refrigerators at the North Pole, but for Richard Waltzer, president of Fort Lauderdale-based Splash Tropical Drinks, it's been big business.

He joined a record number of American food and business executives Monday at Havana's 21st annual International Trade Fair, the most significant trade event on the island, drawing about 600 companies from 50 countries, mostly in Europe, Canada and Asia.

With 14 Florida firms, the Sunshine State led 71 companies from 19 states selling grains, lumber, frozen chicken, fresh vegetables and other prepared and bulk foods.

The high number of American firms, despite the Bush adminstration's recent tightening of travel and other anti-Castro mandates, reflects the growing divide in Congress and the business community over the U.S. policy toward Cuba.

<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-acuba04nov04,0,2677920.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba>

[Judi Lynn]

6. Just a few weeks ago articles started coming out on companies

which were getting denied permission to go to Cuba altogether, after having travelled there last year, sucessfully, to open business lines for the future.

It looks as if _Bush axed a lot of the would-be returning businesses this year. It's terrific so many got through!

Haven't heard the _Bush spokesidiots insulting any of these guys yet. You will remember, no doubt, that Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, last year, as he prepared to accompany his state's group of businessfolk and farmers going to Cuba officially, Cuban "exile" and bon vivant, Otto Reich stepped forward to take a vicious kick at him, by claiming Jesse Ventura shouldn't go to Cuba for "sexual adventurism."

However, there's still time, I'm sure, and we can look for it, for that last minute character attack to land on someone from this delegation, if there is anyone among them high profile enough to get any press.

[Say_What]

7. I remember that about Herr REICH. Wonder if he ever

apologized to Jesse's wife like they demanded.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Funny, I'm not finding any information on that necessary apology

from the slime merchant Otto Reich to Jesse Ventura and his wife.

(snip) Reich, who was born in Cuba and fled to the United States after Fidel Castro came to power, said the Cuban president uses American politicians who visit the communist nation ``as props.''

He also said he hoped Ventura and the business leaders wouldn't engage in ''sexual tourism'' while visiting Cuba.

''I found Assistant Secretary Reich's comments offensive and at the very least, he and President Bush owe my wife and children a personal apology,'' Ventura said.

A week before Reich's statements, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush urged Ventura to cancel the Sept. 25-28 trip. Ventura plans to attend the first-ever U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exposition in Havana, an event sanctioned by the U.S. government to promote the sale of American food products in Cuba.

~~~~ link ~~~~

Interesting to observe Jeb Bush thrusting his right-wing, gusano loving beak into the discourse, also.

[Say_What]

4. Bush, Congress at odds on Cuba

Wayne Smith, right on as usual.

<clips>
Coming as it did less than two weeks after President Bush had announced tougher measures against Cuba, including tightened travel controls, the Senate's approval of an amendment to prohibit the use of Treasury funds to enforce those same controls can only be seen as a repudiation of President Bush's policy.

The measure passed the Senate with a strong majority (59 to 36), with some 19 Republicans voting in favor. As the House had already passed the same amendment, the stage is set for a confrontation.

Republican leaders in the Congress can be expected to move heaven and earth to strip the amendment from the Treasury appropriations bill to which it is attached so that it will not reach the president's desk.

But that will not be easy, for the language is the same in both House and Senate versions, so there is really no need to take it to committee. If the Republican leaders fail to get it out, the president will be faced with the choice of whether to veto. He has said that he will. But that decision could backfire.

<http://www.ajc.com/monday/content/epaper/editions/monday/opinion_f35abf20724551090017.html>

[Zhade]

12. Excellent article!

NT!

[Judi Lynn]

13. Wayne Smith has been watching Cuba legislation in Congress a long time

He mentions something in the article you posted which is really interesting. I've heard other people mention it, but since I actually don't understand what goes on "in comittee," or why, I just assumed automatically Lincoln Diaz-Balart would be able to scuttle this travel ban work. Wayne Smith doesn't seem to think so:

~Republican leaders in the Congress can be expected to move heaven and earth to strip the amendment from the Treasury appropriations bill to which it is attached so that it will not reach the president's desk.

But that will not be easy, for the language is the same in both House and Senate versions, so there is really no need to take it to committee. If the Republican leaders fail to get it out, the president will be faced with the choice of whether to veto. He has said that he will. But that decision could backfire.~

That would be a gift to the rest of the world!

[Say_What]

15. That caught my attention too. It'll be interesting to see what happens

especially since pols were saying the things about stripping the language would be undemocratic, etc.

[Hand]

8. Bwahaha....

Hey, Chimpy--

VIVA FIDEL! VIVA LA PUEBLA CUBANA!!! CHE VIVA!!!!!

:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[Say_What]

9. Russia denounces American blockade of Cuba at UN

You'll love this :bounce:

If you read the US articles about this they are pretty sanitized and mention only what the US delegate said, but the Ruskie rep had quite a lot to say as well and put it in far more diplomatic terms than the Bush shill.

<clips>

..."Russia thinks that further American blockade of Cuba contradicts the modern realities and international relations. It is Cold War residue, which artificially brakes formation of a world order based on the UN Charter, the international law and justice," the Russian diplomat said.

He described as discriminative and contradicting the UN Charter and international law the Helms-Barton Act, "whose exterritorial consequences affect the sovereignty of other countries, lawful interests of juridical and physical persons under their jurisdiction and the universally recognized freedom of trade and shipping."

Isakov voiced the profound concern of Moscow about Washington attempts "to tighten sanctions on Cuba and to put pressure on third countries and some international organizations for ending their cooperation with Cuba." Yet he said Russia is satisfied with a bill adopted at the Senate, which lifts some limits on trips of American citizens to Cuba.

Isakov confirmed the intention of Russia "to continue developing normal trade and economic relations with Cuba, which are based on mutual interest and benefit and are developed without any discrimination or damage to lawful rights and interests of the sides."

http://www.itar-tass.com/english/allnews/487433.html

[Judi Lynn]

11. Very, very coool!

(snip)Isakov confirmed the intention of Russia "to continue developing normal trade and economic relations with Cuba, which are based on mutual interest and benefit and are developed without any discrimination or damage to lawful rights and interests of the sides." (snip)

This is ESPECIALLY signifigant in the light that the Cuban-American community (Jorge Mas Canosa) put pressure on President Reagan to force Russia to break all ties to Cuba as one of the conditions to forming a new relationship with the U.S.

This is too delicious. They are starting to chart their own course regarding Cuba now, which means a signal of independence the _Bushies didn't expect, wouldn't you think?

It's great, too, he pointed out the cheap-shot characteristics of the Helms-Burton Act, which threatens the sovereigny of other countries interested in doing business with Cuba.

[Say_What]

16. Siv and other US officials walked out while country after country opposed

the embargo. Siv's letter, which he read before stomping out like a two-year-old, is posted at the State Dept's website. Warning: Puke Alert!!

<http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=November&x=20031104162740neerge0.9125482&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html>