U.S. now Cuba's seventh trading partner - minister

Reuters, 01.26.04, 12:02 PM ET
By Marc Frank

HAVANA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The United States jumped to seventh place among Cuba's commercial partners in 2003, as the long-time enemies' food trade increased due to a loosening of the four-decade-old U.S. embargo in 2000, the island's Foreign Trade Minister said on Monday.

"The list of the 10 countries that accounted for 72 percent of our trade last year are Venezuela, Spain, China, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States, Mexico, France and Russia," Raul de la Nuez said in an interview with the official business weekly Opciones.

In 2000, the U.S. Congress loosened the U.S. trade embargo imposed after President Fidel Castro's 1959 communist revolution to allow the sale of agricultural products for cash. By 2002 the United States was Cuba's 10th trading partner.

... The food purchases have led to a growing lobby in the United states to broaden trade and travel with Cuba.

Both houses of the U.S. Congress passed amendments to government spending bills last year that further loosened trade and travel restrictions, but the measures were dropped in conference under pressure from the Bush administration.

More...
http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/01/26/rtr1227122.html