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Associated Press file
PARTNERS: Port Chairman Ruben Bonilla (left) and Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba’s import agency, Alimport, shake hands in July 2003, when Cuba signed a shipping agreement with the Port of Corpus Christi. |
Port tries to maintain a relationship with Cuba
As federal government chills any connection with Cuba, local officials try to warm it back up
By Tara Copp/Scripps Howard News Service
The future of the port's historic trade agreement with Cuba last year lies in the nation's capital.
The business ties between Havana and Corpus Christi are firming up in the months after Havana signed a trade agreement with the Port of Corpus Christi in July 2003. The first ships, the Antilles V and the Antilles II, each loaded approximately 10,000 tons of hard red winter wheat in October to officially kick off the trading relationship.
But by the end of the year, only one other ship had sailed through Corpus Christi's port to Cuba. So is the agreement all it's cracked up to be, and what are the obstacles?
"It would be unfair to expect Cuba to become the largest customer of the Port of Corpus Christi in 60 days," said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council. "Cuba is not going to be a sustaining component of Corpus Christi's port revenues for quite some time."
‘Delaying our ability'
The first obstacle the port faces is the Bush administration's decision to delay the renewal of the port's travel license to Cuba.
The decision is not aimed specifically at Corpus Christi, but at ports nationwide, because the White House has started tightening restrictions on trade with Cuba.
Port of Corpus Christi officials plan to make a trip to Washington in 2004 to push for the licenses, which they say are vital to being able to convince Alimport, Cuba's main food purchaser, to send additional cargo through the Coastal Bend en route to Havana.
"The failure to renew our port's license is delaying our ability to carry out our port's objective," said Port of Corpus Christi Chairman Ruben Bonilla. "And now, of course, we are in an election year, where Florida will again play a pivotal role, so we may get caught up in a little political maneuvering. But we are continuing our dialogue and continuing to plan to travel to Cuba again in 2004, perhaps one or more times."
‘A little bit of a payoff'
When the port signed its "Memorandum of Understanding" with Alimport last year, it became the only port in the United States to have such an agreement.
However, several other U.S. ports, including Jacksonville, Fla., Miami, Pascagoula, Miss., Savannah, Ga., and New Orleans have already done a substantial amount of business with Cuba since the 1962 trade embargo was slightly lifted in 2001 to allow food and medicine to be traded. Since then, ports have done about $325 million worth of business with Cuba.
Bonilla wants more of that business going Corpus Christi's way. He said the port is aggressively trying to get into the poultry business with Cuba to take advantage of the port's new cold storage facility.
"I think that the story in 2004 will be the shipment of poultry," Bonilla said. "Poultry is a very important agricultural product for the Cuban people. And at least three major contracts were signed for the export of poultry in Cuba in December, so we are trying to position ourselves to be the principal port of exportation for that."
Kavulich stressed that Cuba's overall impact on the port is going to take some time.
"What Corpus Christi is developing is not like winning the lottery," he said. "What they are doing is like buying a lot of lottery tickets, and there is a little bit of a payoff on each one."
Scripps Howard correspondent Tara Copp can be reached at coppt@shns.com
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