Interview: One year on, Cuba-U.S. economic relations still stagnant: Cuban expert

Almost a year after restoring diplomatic ties, Cuba-U.S.economic ties have been stagnant due to the complex legal framework of the blockade which Washington still imposes on the island, a Cuban expert has said.

U.S. President Barack Obama has already issued several executive measures loosening up certain parts of the blockade, but many of them have not been adopted.

Cuban economist Esteban Morales told Xinhua that Obama's measures are aimed at enhancing financial cooperation with the emerging private sector in Cuba.

Over the past year, Washington has allowed certain companies to do business with the Cuban government in such fields as tourism, agriculture and telecommunications. However, the majority of them still await the embargo to be totally lifted in order to engage extensively in business.

Starwood has inaugurated its first joint hotel in Havana while cruise company Carnival docked in the Cuban capital last May, making it the first U.S. leisure ship to do so in over 50 years.

The White House has also authorized U.S. banks to establish correspondent accounts in Cuba, but only one bank has done so. Meanwhile, Cuban financial institutions are still banned from doing the same in the United States.

Besides that, no major bank in the United States has allowed their clients to use credit cards while visiting Cuba. Only Stonegate Bank, a Florida-based institution, has issued a Mastercard that works in the island country.

Though Cuba has been able to use the U.S. dollar in international financial transactions since March, Havana has not done a single transaction with the currency.

"The U.S. government is gradually taking economic measures and authorizing a few companies to do business in the island as part of a slow political process with the strategy to see if Cuba holds on or falls apart," said the Cuban researcher.

Morales believed the White House still has the goal of "taking over Cuba," but it has modified its "failed" confrontation policy with new methods.

"The way Washington is negotiating its economic relation with the island country is subordinated to a political interest of gaining space in Cuban society and creating a new financial order," he said.

Political interests, Morales said, have also interfered with the possibility of U.S. citizens freely traveling to Cuba as tourists.

While the United States maintains a ban on tourism to Cuba, it has authorized exceptions. U.S. citizens can visit Cuba if they meet one of 12 criteria, such as visiting for educational purposes.

Over 100,000 U.S. citizens visited the island country in the first four months of this year, doubling the amount of travelers during the same period of 2015.

"Freeing up Americans to travel to Cuba would mean an avalanche of U.S. tourism to the island that could bring substantial revenues for the economy," said Morales.

In recent weeks, the U.S. House of Representatives has moved to intensify sanctions against Cuba in what seems to be the most difficult moment in the last 15 months after both nations announced they would end their 50-year enmity.

A group of U.S. lawmakers is currently working to block the Obama administration's efforts to open up U.S. airways to flights from Cuba.

Citing concerns about Cuba's security infrastructure, four members of the U.S. Congress have officially called for a halt to recently announced commercial flights between the United States and Cuba pending a closer review of security measures at Cuba's airports.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced two weeks ago that 10 cities, including four in Florida, and eight airlines had won tentative U.S. government approval to schedule commercial air service between the two countries.

Last month, the department gave approval to six airlines to fly to nine other Cuban cities.

Meanwhile, amendments were made to remove restrictions on agricultural exports to Cuba that would have allowed Cuban companies to buy U.S. agricultural products. However, the Republican and Cuban-American lobby at the legislative body rejected such actions.

"Cuba has no way to obtain credits to buy agricultural products in the U.S. because the law doesn't allow it and the government must pay in cash," said the professor.

Morales said Raul Castro's administration must work on dismantling the unilateral measures Obama has taken in the last few months and push for fair rules of international trade.

The expert believed that Cuba's emblematic goods such as rum, cigars, pharmaceutical and biotechnological products should enter the U.S. market as a sign of thawing ties and real commitment from Washington to increase bilateral commerce.

"It's vital that both countries advance in their economic talks to make this process irreversible," said the Cuban academic.

On July 20 of last year, Cuba and the United States formally reestablished diplomatic relations. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to the Cuban capital a month later for the official flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. Endi