Entrepreneurs from Cuba and Brazil Discuss Business, Travel-related Exchanges in Rio de Janeiro

The possibilities of bigger trade ties between Brazil and Cuba, and chances of enhancing exchanges in the travel industry were touched upon by officials from both countries during the opening of a new bilateral entrepreneurial meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

The event, attended by representatives from 39 Cuban companies and nearly a hundred Brazilian firms, was officially opened Wednesday by Luiz Chor, executive vice president of the Rio Industries Federation (FIRJAN is the acronym in Portuguese), who anticipated a successful powwow with dozens of business negotiations and related activities in the afternoon working sessions.

Antonio Carricarte, Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, underscored that such a massive turnout illustrates the existence of great possibilities and expectations for the advance of bilateral trade. “Events like this one help boost the necessary integration between our two countries,” Mr. Carricarte expressed.

The Cuban high-ranking official noted that regardless of a U.S. economic and trade embargo that’s been in place for over forty years, the Cuban economy continues making modest but solid headway.

In his opinion, some of the island nation’s sectors with better chances of developing in the short run are power generation, oil exploration (with more than fifty drilling blocks in the Gulf of Mexico’s special zone), tourism, nickel, genetic engineering and biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, farming industries and other items.

Mr. Carricarte informed that Cuba’s foreign trade is churning out over $6 billion on an annual basis, with 40 percent of that exchange taking place with Latin America. Within the region –he added- Brazil ranks third, trailing behind Mexico and Venezuela, with more than $100 million worth of trade exchange last year alone. “Nevertheless, we’re not fully pleased,” he averred.

Mr. Carricarte also referred to the Cuba-Brazil commercial agreement as one of the more far-reaching treaties in terms of tax incentives. Despite Cuba’s intention to further expand the agreement, the island nation is determined to promote exports in an effort to cut down on its own trade shortfall.

Brazil’s Secretary of Foreign Trade, Ivan Ramalho, pointed out that bilateral trade between the two nations accrued dramatically following the passage of the complementation agreement.

In the same breath, Mr. Ramalho said the success of his country’s foreign trade stems from a comprehensive diversification of nontraditional products and markets, chiefly in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.