U.S. trade chamber plans ‘educational trip’ to Havana

The powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is planning a trip to Havana this spring, the website CubaStandard reported Tuesday (April 8). Excerpts from that report follow.

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The Washington-based USCC, the influential group that bills itself as the voice in Washington of 3 million businesses, is being tight-lipped about their agenda and participants.

“I’m not able to elaborate at this time, said Tyler Hernández, USCC’s manager of media relations. He did confirm that his office is planning an educational trip to Havana this May, but didn’t want to go further. José Raúl Perales, who heads USCC’s Americas Department, was just as cryptic, noting that his office is still organizing the trip.

“There are many moving pieces here, so I don’t have anything about Cuba and the USCC at this time,” he said.

However, talk in Washington circles has it that USCC chief executive Thomas J. Donohue will be heading the group, which may also include Steve Van Andel, president of the USCC board and chairman of Amway Corp. “I would be hard-pressed to believe that the head of USCC is going to Cuba and will not be meeting with Raúl,” said one insider who declined to go on the record.

[For more on the CubaStandard report, click here.] 

[For the USCC’s stance on U.S. trade with Cuba, click here.]

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Editor’s Note: Also on Tuesday, the Cuban government announced the appointment of Orlando Hernández Guillén, an adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, as president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce.

In late March, USCC officials participated in the launching of the Americas Business Dialogue (ABD), described in the USCC website as “an initiative facilitated by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to foster a high-level, open policy dialogue among the region’s business leaders.”

“The ABD will provide ongoing input from the private sector to help inform policymakers throughout the Western Hemisphere on a host of business and economic issues to promote long-term growth and development across the Americas,” USCC said of the launching, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“The Americas Business Dialogue is a unique opportunity to update and enhance the longstanding partnership between the private sector and governments in the region,” said Jodi Bond, the USCC’s vice president for the Americas, who attended the launching. “Together, we can do so much to advance the economic development and prosperity of the all of our countries.”

[Photo on top of Bruce Josten, left, USCC’s executive vice president, and Thomas J. Donohue, chief executive officer.]