Abraham Maciques: Havana’s Trade Fair and the U.S. Blockade of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 27 (acn) The continued holding of Havana’s International Trade Fair (FIHAV) for more than three decades, with an increase every year in the presence of foreign exhibitors, represents a significant pressure on the U.S. Government so it ends the blockade.
This is what Abraham Maciques, General President of the Palco Business Group, told ACN on the 33rd edition of FIHAV, to be held on November 2-7 at its usual venue of Expocuba.
According to Maciques, one of the main driving forces behind this annual meeting, the Fair has become one of the most effective pressures the business community puts on the White House so its lifts the blockade.
The fact that each year more companies and delegations of high governmental level of other nations attend the Fair demonstrates a rejection of the determination of the U.S. government to maintain that instrument of economic strangulation that limited but did not prevent the development of Cuba in these 56 years of Revolution, he stated.
This time, he said, 900 exhibitors from over 70 countries will be present, a figure that will turn FIHAV 2015 into the largest of its kind in the last decade, also in terms of contracted exhibition area, on this occasion of 20 thousand square meters.
He acknowledged that the extraterritorial nature and other sanctions making up the blockade has caused an intimidatory effect on entrepreneurs from around the world which, from fear of losing their relationship with the northern power, choose other destinations to trade or invest.
However, over the last three decades, numerous demonstrations of support have been made by prestigious foreign firms, which, with or without the willingness of their governments, have cooperated with Cuba in favor of mutual economic development.
This edition of FIHAV will also have the presence of 29 U.S. business persons, a figure that, although modest, surpasses the attendance of previous years, which shows the interest of that community of the northern market to know and promote trade links, he explained.
When Cuba presents on Tuesday for the twenty-fourth time its report "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America on Cuba", the fact that there can be no normal relations as long as that unilateral and unjust policy exists will be shown.