Pennsylvania businesses join effort to loosen Cuba trade restrictions

Washington County farmer Doug Bentrem is interested in improving the market for agricultural products,like the beef he produces athis family’s farm.

Tyler Laughlin, of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, wants to add nonstop destinations to the portfolio of Pittsburgh International Airport, and Chris Heck, president of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce, would like to promote development of industry in the Greater Pittsburgh area.

According to all three, their interests coincide with efforts to improve trade relations between the United States and Cuba.

Mr. Bentrem, Mr. Laughlin and Mr. Heck were among a group of Pittsburgh-area business leaders gathered Tuesday — even as President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore — to discuss America’s relationship with a much closer country where relationships have also been bumpy.

A group called Engage Cuba held a luncheon at the Rivers Club in Downtown Pittsburgh to launch a new Pennsylvania branch — a “state council,” according to the group’s parlance.

The Washington, D.C.based lobbying organization is seeking to end trade and travel restrictions in effect since 1960 by influencing members of Congress, prominent business interests and voters.

State organizations represent an important part of the strategy, and Pennsylvania is now the 18th state council of Engage Cuba.

According to Jim Bialick, vice president of Engage Cuba, Pittsburgh already has a “unique” role in the U.S.-Cuba relationship. “It’s a model for how we’d like to expand.”

Since 1998, Pittsburgh has had a sister city partnership with Matanzas, a city approximately 50 miles east of Havana on Cuba’s northern coast. Jim Ferlo, a former city council member and state senator who is now president of the PittsburghMatanzas Sister City Partnership, noted the relationship had helped change opinions here by organizing several trips to Cuba.

“When people go to Cuba, they are changed,” Mr. Ferlo said Tuesday. “We can never stop visiting Cuba and engaging.”

There’s been a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations in recent years and some agricultural and medical products have fallen under a limited exception to the trade restrictions since 2000.

But the financial provisions of the decades-old trade embargo have prevented Cuban importers from accessing American credit to make imports more financially viable, Mr. Bialick explained.

James Williams, president of the organization, noted that the recent transition of power in Cuba has coincided with an economic downturn there.

In April, Miguel DíazCanel succeeded Raúl Castro as the president of the island country and became the first leader outside the Castro family since the revolution in 1959. A reduction in financial support from Venezuela and a higher global oil price have coupled to depress economic growth and, according to Mr. Williams, increased trade with the United States could fill the void.

One thousand miles to the north, Mr. Williams sees the 2018 midterm elections as an opportunity to shape the opinionsof newly elected senatorsand representatives.

Mr. Bentrem, the farmer from Washington County, told the Pittsburgh group that Cuba could form an important market for agricultural exports. “One of my passions is to keep the farm in the family and to keep it a farm,” he said.

Last year, according to the Census Bureau, the United States exported $291 million worth of products to Cuba, an increase from $242 million in 2016. More than half of that consisted of agricultural goods, including about $165 million in meat and poultry products and another $8 million in dairy exports.

Just over $2 million of the exports to Cuba, less than 1 percent of the U.S. total, originated in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Laughlin, of the airport authority, said a direct commercial flight to Cuba is part of the airport authority’s long-term plans and could provide an economic boost to Pittsburgh.

Mr. Heck, from the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce, made the case for potential economic spillover from increased travel to and from Cuba as well, noting the potential for “significant growth on the corporate side in the airport corridor.”

Engage Cuba is optimistic that support from farmers, industry leaders and politicians might be enough to tip the scales. Mr. Williams cited the passage of a resolution in the Alabama Legislature calling for an end to the embargo as evidence that the group’s efforts can have an impact across party lines.

While he admitted that the Trump administration’s policies have represented an “interesting time” for efforts to improve the relationship with Cuba, particularly compared to the “rocket fuel” policy of the Obama administration, Mr. Williams remains optimistic.

Although the American president said that he would cancel Obama-era Cuba policies, Mr. Williams noted, “If [Mr. Trump] can meet with the North Korean dictator, then anything’s possible.”