Posted on 11/05/2003 7:42:18 PM PST by WKB
Mississippi: What do Fidel Castro and a bunch of “good ole boys” from Dixie have in common?
Chicken and cheeseburgers, for starters.
Mississippi, long considered one of the most politically conservative states in the United States, is cultivating a small but burgeoning trade relationship with Cuba’s communist-run government.
Ships laden with an extensive and growing list of US food and agricultural products such as beef, chicken, rice and cheese now sail regularly from Gulfport and Pascagoula to Havana, the Cuban capital.
The exports, legal under an exemption to the United States’ four-decade-old trade embargo of Cuba, have whetted interest in Mississippi and spurred hopes that the state will win a healthy share of US-Cuban trade if, as Mississippi expects, relations are eventually normalised.
“Mississippi has been very aggressive to put itself in a position to increase the amount of trade to Cuba,” said Don Allee, executive director and chief executive officer of the Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport.
More than 20,000 tons of cargo, or about one percent of the port’s total shipments, went to Cuba last year. “When the embargo is lifted, whoever has a relationship with the Cubans has an advantage,” Allee said.
Cubans keen to expand trade: Spurred by a relaxation in 2000 of US trade laws toward Cuba, the island nation has spent more than $500 million in the last two years on purchases of American chicken, soybeans and other agricultural products from some 35 states.
The United States allows the sales as long as they are financed by a party outside the United States or Cuba.
US rice is one of the products that Cuba is most keen to buy. Under the Cold War-era embargo it has been forced to import this staple from Vietnam and other parts of Asia, driving up costs.
Ships from southeast Asia typically take 20 to 25 days to reach the Cuban mainland. In comparison, most Gulf Coast ports are within 1,000 miles (1,609 km) of Cuba and generally can deliver goods within four days.
Officials in Mississippi are quick to note that shipping times from its ports are at least a day shorter than those in Louisiana and Texas, an advantage that makes it attractive for US companies exporting to the Caribbean and Latin America.
The “magnolia state” also wins high marks from shippers for its pro-business atmosphere and low port and wharfage fees.
“Mississippi ports are well run, the union labour is very cooperative and geographically they (the facilities) are very close to the water,” said Jay Brickman, a vice president with Crowley Liner Services, which uses Gulfport’s facilities.
In 2001, Crowley, a subsidiary of Oakland, California-based Crowley Maritime Corp., became the first US shipping line in more than 40 years to transport goods directly to Cuba when it delivered 500 tons of frozen chicken from Gulfport.
Last summer, it shipped more than 400 head of US cattle, sheep and bison to Cuba.
Crowley has been splitting its shipments between Gulfport and Jacksonville, Florida. Officials in Mississippi, however, believe that their facilities as well as the lack of a big Cuban-American population in the state may give them an edge over Florida if trade relations with Cuba are normalised.
Trade has some seeing red: Despite signs that US commerce with Cuba is expanding, trade with the island is still governed by a complex regulatory regime overseen primarily by the US Treasury and Commerce departments.
Anyone wishing to do business with Cuba must obtain three separate licences from the US government — one for travel, one for shipping and another to sell products. The process can be arcane and unpredictable.
Critics of the embargo say such restrictions remain a daunting barrier for Americans, particularly farmers.
The embargo costs the US economy an estimated $1.24 billion in lost agricultural exports and another $3.6 billion in related economic output each year, according to a study released in 2002 by the Cuba Policy Foundation, a group that favours relaxing trade and travel to Cuba.
Others, especially in the politically influential Cuban-American community, contend that easing or lifting the embargo would reward Castro and do little or nothing to improve the lives of ordinary Cubans.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, said businesses are living in a fool’s paradise if they think that establishing relationships with Cuban communists will position them for a bright future.
“It’s absurd because it implies that having a relationship with exploiters eventually leads to a better relationship with the long-term owners,” said Garcia, who argues that some US companies want to trade with Castro in order to dump excess production in Cuba’s socialist economy. —Reuters
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