U.S. Commerce Secretary to Arrive in Cuba on Tuesday

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 6 (acn) U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will arrive in this capital on Tuesday for a two-day official visit, as part of the process towards the normalization of relations between Cuba and the northern nation.

During her stay, Pritzker will meet with Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, and will visit the Special Development Zone and the port of Mariel, among other places of economic, historic and cultural interest.
The trip of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce is the second of a member of the cabinet of President Barack Obama, after the one made in August by Secretary of State John Kerry to attend the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Havana.
Penny Pritzker will open on Wednesday a meeting between officials of the U.S. departments of the Treasury, Commerce and State and representatives of various Cuban ministries and companies, in order to exchange views on the scope and limitations of the steps taken by the Obama administration this year to modify the implementation of some aspects of the blockade against Cuba.
In the months of January and September of this year some restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens qualifying within the 12 categories authorized -now general- were eliminated, although the total ban on travel to the island for tourism by citizens of that country was not eliminated, which would require congressional approval.
In these measures of the Obama administration, core aspects of the blockade policy were not modified, among them the use of dollars in Cuba's international financial transactions and the possibility of trade with subsidiaries of U.S. companies in third countries.
Similarly, the fact that the Cuban government has to pay for purchases in the U.S. in advance and in cash is still in force, as established by current regulations.
However, the measures of the Departments of Commerce and the Treasury, as pointed out by Cuban Foreign Ministry officials- are steps in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go to eliminate many other aspects of the economic, commercial and financial blockade through the use of the President's executive powers, and for the US Congress to put an end to that policy.
It's in this context that the first visit of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker takes place, a visit in which she will have the opportunity to hold exchanges on various aspects in which the two countries can move forward together.
This visit is part of the process towards the normalization of relations between Havana and Washington, after the two countries formally reestablished diplomatic ties on July 20, after more than five decades of breaking-off.
Today, the United States and Cuba are working on a common agenda with short and medium-term objectives, which will be boosted by a Bilateral Commission that has already had its first meeting in this capital, and that included talks last week on civil aviation.