CUBA BUSINESS SECTION - Havana Journal > Cuba-US Trade
The world recession has caused more intense screening of business executives seeking Cuban visas and has slowed down decision-making on new business projects on the communist island,a U.S. maritime executive said Thursday.
Speaking at the SeaCargo Americas conference in Miami, Jay Brickman, vice president of government services at Crowley Marine Services, said the worldwide slowdown has battered an already weak Cuban economy, with prices for nickel exports down by some 40 percent,a sharp decline in remittances from Cubans overseas and less spending by tourists visiting the island.
“The [economic] situation…
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By Nick Miroff | Global Post
For years, U.S. mobile phone companies and internet providers have been banned from doing business with Cuba, further isolating one of the least-connected countries in the hemisphere.
So when the Obama administration loosened those restrictions earlier this year, it looked like a tech surge was in store for the communist-ruled island. But after months of silence, Cuba seems to be saying no thanks.
Other outstanding trade and legal grievances need to be resolved before American telecommunications companies are granted access, a Cuban telecom official said Saturday, in a statement that appeared to rebuff one…
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Press Release
Fuego Enterprises, Inc. (PinkSheets:FUGI - News) spun off on October 12, 2009 a newly incorporated shell company to shareholders of record as of September 12, 2009. Shareholders of record are to ultimately receive 1 share of the new company, Cuba Business Development Group, Inc. (“CBDG”), for every two shares held in Fuego Enterprises, Inc. Fractional shares will not be issued.
“Cuba Business Development Group Inc. was formed to take advantage of opportunities we expect in the very near future as the U.S and Cuba inevitably establish more normal relations and businesses in both countries need our expertise and…
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BY JUAN O. TAMAYO | ElNuevoHerald.com
While the Cuban patents credit the individual inventors who worked on the developments, the rights to the patents are virtually always assigned to government entities. Patent 7,556,726 was assigned to the National Center for Scientific Investigations, an agency of the Ministry of Higher Education.
Havana has retained the right to file for U.S. patents and trademarks because President John F. Kennedy exempted intellectual property when he tightened the trade embargo on Cuba in 1962.
That was likely because such property rights are protected by international treaties, said Marvin Feldman, a patent specialist and partner…
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BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Across the street from the massive Karl Marx theater sits a beige-colored building that has become a critical stop for businesses preparing for the economic future of the Caribbean’s largest nation.
The law office of Lex S.A.—a spinoff from the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba—helps about 100 companies a month register their trademarks and brands in Cuba. Some are already doing business on the island under exclusions to the U.S. embargo, others await the day when the sanctions end and the two nations resume normal trade.
On the wall is a picture frame…
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DAMIEN CAVE | Miami Herald
Imagine a ferry from Miami to Havana that costs far less than a flight. Cuban-Americans, who can now visit the island without restriction, could eat lechón on deck, then deliver a shipping container of food to needy relatives by morning.
Armando Ruiz, 72, a Cuban exile and former concert promoter, has dreamed of this for a decade. Now he thinks it might actually happen — if the Obama administration approves his application for a license.
“He says he wants to help the Cuban people,” Mr. Ruiz said, referring to President Obama. “How can he do…
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Reuters
In measures originally announced in April and implemented last week, U.S. President Barack Obama has relaxed aspects of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba to allow U.S. telecommunications companies to provide services to the communist-ruled island.
But the U.S. companies face major hurdles, from legal obstacles to tough foreign competition and the key question of whether wary Cuban authorities will be willing to open up this strategic area to operators from the country Havana has viewed as its ideological enemy for almost half a century.
Here are some facts about the Cuban telecoms sector:
LOW PENETRATION, BIG POTENTIAL
Most…
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By Pascal Fletcher | Reuters
Miami’s business will gain if the United States unilaterally lifts its trade embargo on Cuba, but the city could face “unfair” competition from state-subsidized Cuban cigar, citrus and rum exports, its main trade body said.
This is one finding of a new report from the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce which for the first time considers the scenario that President Barack Obama’s administration may ease or even end the embargo without major changes inside Cuba.
Obama has said the 47-year-old embargo will remain for the moment to press Cuba’s communist leadership to free dissidents and…
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William Gibson | Sun Sentinel
A powerful coalition of 16 senators today introduced a bill to lift the ban on travel to Cuba and ease the sale of food and medicine to the island.
The bill was introduced on Cuban Independence Day. It reflects growing pressure from farm states to weaken the 47-year embargo and allow American farmers to expand the Cuban market for their products.
This bill is separate from another in Congress that would remove the travel ban. President Obama has lifted travel limits for Cuban-Americans, but many members of Congress want to move further to allow all…
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AP
Jugs of daiquiri mix. Gourmet nuts. Rolls of newsprint. Not exactly humanitarian aid, but still among the items sold to Cuba under an agricultural waiver carved out of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo.
American businesses are raking in more than $700 million a year selling these and other products to the Cuban government under the waiver, which was passed by Congress partly on humanitarian grounds and signed in 2000 by President Bill Clinton.
Backers said the measure would expand U.S. markets and help the communist country feed its people. And the waiver has accomplished that, with huge shipments of…
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