Despite Embargo, US Firms Among Hundreds Showing Products At Cuban Trade Fair

Cuba's top six trade partners are Venezuela, China, Spain, Canada, Italy and Brazil, which together account for 70 per cent of commerce the island has with firms from 176 countries, de la Nuez said. Foreign trade grew 12 per cent in the first nine months of 2007 over the year-ago period, de la Nuez said without providing specific figures. Cuba signed deals worth $432 million at last year's trade fair. The U.S. embargo, which took its current form in 1962, chokes most commercial exchange with the island. But a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2000 now allows U.S. food to be sold directly to Cuba for cash. Ramiro Valdes, a former Cuban interior minister who now serves as minister of communications, noted while the embargo aims to "keep even one dollar from entering Cuba...at each one of these fairs, there are more people and more businesses working to neutralize it." Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman attended the fair on his fourth visit to Cuba Monday, as commodities merchants agreed to sell $10 million worth of Nebraskan wheat to Cuba - bringing the total value of Nebraska farm products sold there since 2005 to more than $70 million. ... http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/119030

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