US companies in Cuba for week-long celebration of commerce

US companies in Cuba for week-long celebration of commerce
Nov 3, 11:12 AM EST
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) -- A weeklong celebration of commerce is underway in one of the world's last communist countries, with hundreds of international corporations including some big U.S. firms flocking to Havana to try to do business with a government basking in expectations of growth set off by detente with Washington.

The Havana International Fair has long been among the stranger events in the world of international business: a trade fair in a cash-starved country that's embargoed by the world's most powerful nation and views markets with deep suspicion. For years, Cuban bureaucrats, foreign diplomats and businessmen gamely trooped through the halls of the Pabexpo fairgrounds on the outskirts of Havana, eyeing stalls stocked with products like Spanish canned vegetables and dutifully attending government presentations on opportunities for investments in state-controlled pig farms and nickel mines.

This year's fair has something new: the electric buzz of business hustling to capitalize on what many feel will be a boom set off by the start of the normalization of relations with the U.S.

"This entire process has aroused international interest," Commerce Minister Rodrigo Malmierca said Monday as he announced that Cuba saw 4.7 percent growth in the first half of the year, and is expected to close 2015 with 4 percent, up from an anemic 1.3 percent in 2014. "We are convinced that it is possible to have a normal and civilized relationship with the United States."

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CB_CUBA_US_TRADE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-03-10-45-27

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