Canada hurries to regain momentum in Cuba trade
Canadian businesses are suddenly scrambling not to squander the head start they had in Cuba after the Soviet pullout, now that Cuba and the United States are essaying renewed relations, says an article Friday (Jan. 30) in the Canadian newspaper The Financial Post.
“In the mid-1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was the new frontier. We were doing all kinds of deals,” Mark Entwistle, Canada’s ambassador to Cuba 1993-1997, told the newspaper. “Then Cuba stopped experimenting as much with foreign investment […] and the money dried up.”
Now that Cuba and the U.S. are talking to each other again, “you can tell that Cuba’s kind of moved its way up the food chain,” Entwistle told a gathering of Canadian businessmen in Toronto on Tuesday (Jan. 27). “The interest is rising again, getting back to the radar screens where it had been off.”
Why the renewed interest in the Caribbean island?
Canada never broke diplomatic relations with Cuba after the revolution in 1959, and Canadians have longstanding and deep connections with Cuba as tourists and investors, the article notes.
However, “with the exception of Sherritt International Corp. — which generates about 75 percent of its income from nickel it mines in Cuba — Canada has squandered its opportunity to solidify its place as the premier business partner with Cuba during the many years when U.S. policy froze out American companies,” writes reporter Peter Kuitenbrouwer.
“Now, with Cuba and the U.S. playing footsie, investors sense that Cuba may be opening up more generally, offering renewed opportunities for Canadians, who already know Cuba well, to make some money,” the journalist writes.
According to The Post, Entwistle and others have founded a boutique merchant bank, Acasta Capital, whose specialty will be doing business with Cuba. American investors are already calling for advice on investing in Cuba, Entwistle told the newspaper.
Although Canadians are well liked in Cuba, “that does not give Canada a free ride,” Entwistle told the businessmen at the gathering. “Cuba is already a bustling, crowded place. Canadians will have to compete head-on.”
The former diplomat pointed out that a French telecom, Orange S.A., recently signed a deal to improve Cuba’s telephone system, “the kind of deal we could have done. We just didn’t bother to go there and do it.”
Entwistle believes that agriculture in Cuba “is a big strategic sector for Canadian interests. You throw seeds in the ground and things grow. You have a professional agronomist class.” With the right kind of investment, “Cuba could become a major exporter fruits and vegetables to the U.S. There is a perfect storm of untapped ingredients for agriculture.”
Cuban-born Ricardo Alcolado Pérez, an attorney in Toronto, helps Canadian companies invest in Cuba. “I’m working on a few projects,” he told The Post. “One is a Canadian company that would like to raise funds in British Columbia to build a hotel in Cuba.”
Information technology is another promising field, he added.
“In the last 10 years, Cuba has invested in training high-tech specialists. There are a lot of young guys who are very skilled. Already, companies in Canada outsource software development to Cuba,” Alcolado said.
The stars are aligning for major change in Cuba, and Canada will be there, Entwistle told The Post.
“This not a hermit kingdom,” he said. “It is not an isolated place, but it’s one of the few markets around with a sense of untapped potential. There are a lot of ingredients for an economic takeoff in Cuba.”
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