Obama wants Congress to lift 55-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
Photo by AP Photo/Desmond Boyland
President Obama’s trip to Cuba has given a lift—though no big signed contracts—to construction firms and equipment makers hoping to do business in the country, which has major infrastructure needs.
Nevertheless, U.S. firms realize that significant U.S. exports to Cuba of construction equipment and engineering services hinge on loosening or lifting a 55-year-old trade embargo against that country—something the current Congress isn’t likely to do.
Obama wants the embargo ended. “It is an outdated burden on the Cuban people,” he said in a March 22 speech in Havana. “It’s a burden on the Americans who want to work and do business or invest here in Cuba. It’s time to lift the embargo.”
That appears to be, at best, a long shot on Capitol Hill this year. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters on March 17 that the embargo “is still intact and enforceable.” Ryan added, “Despite the president’s attempts to undermine this embargo by executive action, he is ultimately bound by it.”
Sofia Berger, vice president and division manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at engineering firm Louis Berger, says, “I don’t think anyone expects anything fundamental to happen with the embargo until after the elections in the U.S.—that depends massively on who gets elected and what their agenda will be and who the Congress will be.”
Although Obama’s March 20-22 trip didn’t produce concrete trade breakthroughs between the two countries, the historic nature of his trip—the first visit to Cuba by a U.S. president since 1928—put a spotlight on U.S.-Cuba relations.
The Commerce Dept. also took the opportunity to list recent steps that some U.S. companies are taking to position themselves to do business in Cuba.
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