The US is pushing Cuba to open its economy to private investment and Havana has undertaken major reforms precisely to that end, writes the Associated Press, quoted by BTA.
Cuba's UN ambassador, however, asked why Washington continues to impose sanctions that hinder the island's economic opening, which the US itself has been calling for for decades.
Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán addressed his question to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is the main architect of President Donald Trump's administration's policy towards Cuba.
„What are you afraid of? "If you are so convinced that the Cuban government is incompetent, why do you have to impose new sanctions almost every two weeks?" Guzman asked in an interview with The Associated Press this week.
The U.S. State Department responded to a request for comment with Rubio saying that new sanctions would continue to be announced every few weeks to close "the loopholes that they are trying to create in every mechanism."
On Thursday, the United States imposed new economic sanctions on Cuban state-owned enterprises in the mining, metallurgical and construction industries.
Cuba is on the brink of an economic crisis because of an oil blockade imposed by the United States in January, which adds to the effects of a decades-long U.S. embargo and increasing sanctions. The Trump administration's measures, aimed at pressuring the Cuban government by restricting its access to financing, have exacerbated already severe power outages, restricted workers' access to public transportation, paralyzed infrastructure, and exacerbated shortages of medicine and food on the Caribbean island.
According to Guzmán, sanctions are the main obstacle to opening up the Cuban economy. He said the effects of the US measures (most notably shortages of electricity and fuel for businesses and transport) are driving away investors and tourists, who are among Cuba's main sources of income.
Some companies have pulled out of the country, including the Spanish hotel chain “Melia” (Meliá), which relies on tourism revenue, cited “significant operational, legal, economic and financial difficulties” as the reason for its decision.
“The United States has done everything it can to discourage foreign investors,” said William LeoGrande, a professor at American University and a leading expert on U.S.-Cuba relations. He said the claim that Washington wants Cuba to open up to foreign investment is disingenuous, as reforms cannot succeed without some easing of sanctions.
According to LeoGrande, the goal of the Republican Trump administration is “not just the economic opening of Cuba, but the overthrow of the Cuban government and changing the nature of the political system“.
John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said Cuba was forced to make changes after losing its economic "lifeline" with the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the United States in January.
“As a result, in the last eight months, the Cuban government has made more commercial, economic and financial changes in the country than since the revolution as a whole,“ he added.“However, the Trump administration continues to tighten sanctions and put increasing pressure on Cuba, which is responding by undertaking new changes, Kavulic said.“First, Cuba must implement through regulations everything it has announced, and second, the Trump administration must allow American companies greater access to the Cuban market while these changes are being implemented,“ Kavulic said.
The reforms announced in June by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel are aimed at significantly changing Cuba's economy and industry, which have been under the strict control of the socialist government since the 1959 revolution. year.
The measures include more opportunities for private business, imports and exports without state intervention, free hiring of personnel, permission for private banks, investment by Cubans living abroad, and opportunities for fast food chains to enter the island.
Guzman said there are opportunities for investment in real estate, solar parks and energy to overcome the electricity shortage. Investments in marinas and the tourism sector may also be allowed.
Christopher Hernandez-Roy, interim director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recalled that the island's previous economic opening was under President Barack Obama. But "it was later limited by Cubans themselves, out of concerns that it went too far and threatened political control," he explained.
Today, however, it seems that Cuban authorities do want economic reforms and foreign investment, he added. Diaz-Canel’s reforms are not impossible, but U.S. sanctions “significantly limit their prospects for success,” Hernandez-Roy added.
There is a paradox, he said: U.S. pressure “helps push Cubans toward greater economic liberalization, while at the same time limiting the resources and access needed for those reforms to actually improve the economy.”
In late June, after the reforms were announced, the United States imposed sanctions on five state-owned companies, three of which are linked to a conglomerate run by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. The conglomerate, GAESA, is believed to control nearly 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Rubio, a former Florida senator whose parents were born in Cuba, does not seem impressed by the announced economic changes. Last month, he called Cuba a "failed state" with a "bad economic model." He said Cuban leaders "don't know what they're doing" and "don't know how to fix their economy."
"I think the challenge Cuba has faced over the last 15 years is that they want to improve their economy somewhat, but they're afraid that if they improve it too much, they'll lose political control over the people," Rubio said.
The United States is ready "to do whatever it can to bring about positive change in Cuba because it directly affects our national security," Rubio said, noting that the island is just 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the American mainland. "We want Cuba to be prosperous." "We want Cuba to be free," he added.
The Cuban ambassador said that implementing economic changes would be much easier without sanctions if American companies were to participate in the Cuban market and if trade between the two countries was possible.
He cited as a positive fact that "very sensitive talks" are taking place between the United States and Cuba, but declined to give details.
"But the point is that even when Cuba is changing so much," Guzman said, "the U.S. government is maintaining the same policy of aggression against the Cuban people."