In Cuba, no Surprises for Cuomo

On the first day of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s whirlwind trade mission to Cuba, he held a private lunch meeting with the country’s minister of trade and foreign investments, participated in a bi-national business roundtable, and sat down with the cardinal of the Archdiocese of Havana.

Later in the day, Cuomo toured the cobblestone streets and squares of Old Havana, sat behind the wheel of a pink 1956 Chevy and met with a group of study abroad students from New York’s SUNY system. With a crowd of reporters and staffers in tow, he drew plenty of attention from locals and tourists along the way. 

And he repeatedly called his trip “historic,” in large part because he is the first U.S. governor to travel to the island after President Barack Obama announced a thaw between the two countries. (Whether New York is the first state to send representatives to Cuba, as Cuomo says, is a more dubious claim.)

But for all the buzz the trip has generated, Cuomo came away empty-handed—at least for now. Asked whether he had secured any trade deals, the governor said that he had already made it clear that “that’s not what this trip is about.”

“We’re not going to be here one day and consummate a business transaction,” he told reporters gathered in Havana’s Plaza de San Francisco de Asis on Monday evening. “We said that we wanted to be the first state on the ground to get our foot in the door to start developing relationships. This is all a situation in progress.”

The governor said that he did learn during the trip that the federal government can issue licenses to allow companies to do business in Cuba before the embargo is lifted, paving the way for expanded trade in the near term.

“So now it really is a question of coming up with a business relationship that works for Cuba, works for the United States, and then getting it licensed by the federal government,” he said. “So immediate business activity is actually more plausible than I thought it was.”

Indeed, the companies selected to join the business delegation represent sectors that already can or soon will be able to trade with Cuba. Cayuga Milk Ingredients and Chobani Greek Yogurt can already ship their products to Cuba under a longstanding humanitarian exception to the embargo, for example, while Pfizer and Regeneron qualify under a provision that allows the export of health care products.

MasterCard, who also sent representatives on the trip, is authorized by new regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury Department to permit its credit cards to be used within the Cuba. And JetBlue, which operated the charter flight carrying the delegation to Cuba, seemed to be the governor’s favorite example of a promising company to build economic ties with the island nation.

“JetBlue has operated charter flights from the United States to the Republic of Cuba since 2011,” noted John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. “And the company has expressed interest in providing regularly-scheduled service from the United States to the Republic of Cuba.” That could happen as soon as this year, he added, once the countries work through issues like protecting Cuban aircraft from being confiscated in the U.S. to cover claims from property seized on the island after the revolution.

The absence of a trade deal was notable, whether or not one should have been expected. Before the governor departed on his trip Monday, longtime experts had wondered whether he would come away with any solid commitments from Cuba to purchase New York goods or services. Despite Cuomo’s rhetorical emphasis on getting there “first,” at least 10 other governors have travelled to the island over more than a decade, a number of them landing substantial trade deals for their states.

Of course, the failure to ink a trade deal or two is not necessarily Cuomo’s fault. Ironically, U.S.-Cuba trade is currently at a low point. The export of American food, agricultural products and medicine has been on a downward spiral since a peak in 2008, due in part to Cuban deals with friendlier countries. Even with the recent high-profile steps toward renewed ties, the U.S. embargo on Cuba and sanctions for violating it are still in place—a concern that skeptics raised when Cuomo first announced his trip.

But for Cuomo, the chance to get the ball rolling for a number of New York companies has made the trip well worth it. 

“We’ve been meeting all day,” he said. “We’re going to continue to meet tomorrow and see what transactions they can outline or envision that would work for both sides, and then we’ll make it a reality.”