Cuomo’s Cuba trip and the power of good optics
Andrew Cuomo will never be confused with Barack Obama, but when it comes to highly publicized junkets to Cuba, the governor staked his claim first. Cuomo visited the island last spring, roughly a year before President Obama’s trip this week – where he is spending three days in an ongoing effort to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba’s Communist regime.
However, even though Cuomo may have beaten Obama to the punch, questions have been raised as to whether the governor’s “trade mission” had any real significance beyond good optics. City & State’s Jon Lentz, one of the reporters who accompanied Cuomo to Cuba, recently found that very little new business was generated from the trip to the island, which included representatives from seven New York-based businesses.
Jon’s article prompted a response from Sue Ashdown, president of IcarusCuba LLC, a Havana-based trade organization dedicated to providing unbiased market analysis for companies interested in doing business in Cuba.
Ashdown brings a measured perspective of what we should expect from high-profile visits to the island from U.S. officials, and why these visits do not yield much in the way of concrete trade agreements. Her edited response to Jon’s article is included below:
One of the biggest misconceptions we've seen reflected in the comments of elected officials and business executives to the press following their blitzkrieg visits to Havana, is the idea that the higher the profile of the visitor, and the higher the level of their meetings in Cuba, the better the chances of closing a fast-track deal. While it is true that Cuba places a high emphasis on these visits and evidently pulls out all the stops to receive a governor from a state as important as New York, a member of the president's cabinet, or the president himself, these receptions should not be confused with the actual process for negotiating and approving deals in Cuba, which is complex, time consuming and no substitution for high-level meet-and-greets. Whether it's a one-day or a weeklong visit is really immaterial.
As your article notes, Buffalo's Roswell Park Cancer Institute has been working with Havana's Center for Molecular Immunology since 2011, and Infor Global Solutions had at least done a bit of advance work before coming to Cuba – in the form of its Commerce Department export license – although it's unclear what work, if any, they've actually done on the ground in Cuba. (Presumably the company's sales plan is based on a concrete market study, not someone's hunch.) The fact that Infor left Cuba with some kind of signed document in hand should have been no surprise, least of all to Cuomo. The companies that do their homework beforehand will be the first to reap the rewards.
But Cuomo's statements should also be seen in light of a push from the U.S. Commerce Department to find positive business stories in return for the changes in U.S. regulations – it’s why we hear nonstop about Cleber tractors and AirBnB. Your point that very few concrete deals have emerged from the well-publicized junkets over the past year is completely valid. It could not be any other way, given the nature of the Cuban negotiation process, but more importantly, due to the elephant in the room – the U.S. embargo that ties American companies in knots while their international competitors have an open door.
I very much doubt that it would have helped to bring even more business executives on the governor's tour, as it is absolutely true that the larger the delegation, the more complicated the logistics in an environment where even small delegations can be a headache for the Cuban government. To really drill down on business possibilities, a small delegation from a single sector is ideal. Obviously, Gov. Cuomo had a different, more media-focused objective, but this is not necessarily a terrible thing. There is still plenty of stigma and uncertainty attached to the idea of trade with Cuba, and when a well-known governor is willing to be the public face for a controversial idea, like it or not, it carries weight. The key is to fully understand existing conditions, so as not to be carried away by the hype.