Reuters/Havana

US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told Cuban officials yesterday that Washington wants to promote the Communist country’s nascent private sector to maximise trade and build on newly restored diplomatic relations.
Only the second cabinet-level US official to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution, Pritzker said her mission was meant to explain President Barack Obama’s recent relaxation of the US trade embargo. She also urged the US Congress to lift the embargo completely.
Pritzker, an early supporter of then-candidate Obama and part of the family that created the Hyatt hotel fortune, was to meet with two Cuban ministers and one of its vice-presidents on the second day of her two-day visit.
In remarks to Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca and other officials, Pritzker said the lives of ordinary Cubans would only be improved if Cuban President Raul Castro’s market-oriented reforms were extended.
“We urge President Castro and his government to make it easier for Cuban citizens to trade and travel more freely, to enjoy the fruits of their labour, to access the Internet, and to be hired directly by foreign companies,” Pritzker said.
In Cuba’s Soviet-style economy, Castro has permitted much of agriculture to leave state control and form co-operatives while allowing small private businesses to thrive.
A foreign investment law passed last year offers tax breaks, but the Cuban state retains a majority stake in most ventures and controls the hiring of workers. Cuba has yet to allow foreign technology companies to wire the island, leaving it with the worst Internet access in the Americas.






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