Once again, businesses look south towards a new Cuba

Posted on Mon, Jan. 22, 2007

EDITOR'S NOTE
Once again, businesses look south towards a new Cuba
By Mimi Whitefield
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com

Fidel Castro is ailing; his brother Raúl is at the helm -- at least
temporarily -- and that chain of events has set off another one on this
side of the Florida Straits.

Businesses are revisiting Cuba plans -- many formulated in the early
1990s after the Soviet Union, Cuba's chief benefactor, collapsed.

Things were touch and go on the island then. Oil supplies dried up; the
cities were dark due to power shortages; food was scarce; and
speculation rose that the Cuban economy was on its last legs and the
Castro brothers' days were numbered.

That, of course, gave rise to a cottage industry in South Florida:
preparing to do business with the new Cuba.

Law firms looked into property and trademark rights of Cuban exiles
whose companies and lands were expropriated by the Cuban government.
Some people even supposedly ''bought'' property in Cuba -- though such
purchases aren't officially recognized -- and others visited the island
to prospect for business opportunities.

Political change was inevitable, many thought. But the Cuban government
made economic adjustments, the United States passed the
embargo-tightening Helms-Burton law, and the hope of renewed business
contacts with Cuba faded.

Now with a perhaps more pragmatic Raúl Castro serving as interim
president and prospects for Fidel Castro's return uncertain, companies
-- large and small -- have started dusting off their Cuba plans.

While tightening up on travel to Cuba and some aspects of the embargo in
recent years, the United States also has permitted the sale of U.S. farm
products and pharmaceuticals and the import of Cuban art and music.

Some U.S. executives have embraced these opportunities and used them to
gain a toehold in Cuban commerce, which they believe will only expand in
coming years. Today's cover story, ''Preparing for Cuba'' (page 22),
reports on current business as well as prospects for the future in key
industries -- if the embargo is lifted.

Though we now appear to be in a cycle of leftist ascendancy in Latin
America, alliances and old paradigms can change rapidly in today's
world, and it's best to always be prepared.

Mimi Whitefield is business enterprise editor.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/special_packages/business_monday/16503017.htm