A Site for a Free Cuba
Un Sitio para Liborio
A Site for a Free CubaUn Sitio para Liborio |
|
Corpus Christi and Castro Government Partners in tradeOR CORPUS CHRISTI IS DICTATING ITS OWN FOREIGN POLICY AGAINST WASHINGTON OR THEY KNOW THAT VERY SOON WASHINGTON WILL BE DOING BUSINESS WITH THE SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT OF CUBA AND DO NOT WISH TO WAIT. By Tara Copp Scripps Howard News Service July 20, 2003 WASHINGTON - Alimport's agreement with the Port of Corpus Christi could turn business that would have gone elsewhere toward the Coastal Bend. That's what sets Corpus Christi apart from the other 11 U.S. ports currently trading with Cuba. "Ports don't generally have contracts with Alimport, they have contracts with the exporter and with the shipping line," said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council. In the agreement with Corpus Christi, Alimport, the Cuban government's purchasing Corpus Christi Coastal Bend South Texas news, information, events calendar organization, has agreed to get some of its exporters to move their products through the port. Two shipping lines are poised to pick up Alimport's exports: Sea Trade Shipping Services and United Americas Shipping Lines. Both have obtained licenses to carry goods into Cuba. Crops are set to go. And, Cuba trade advocates are quick to point out that South Texas brims with the very commodities - grains and sorghums - that Cuba needs. WHAT THE AGREEMENT SAYS Alimport will review its current U.S. cargo schedule in order to ship one or more of its U.S. contracted cargoes using the Port of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi will strive to offer competitive tariffs and rates to U.S. companies that are and may be engaged in business transactions with Alimport. Corpus Christi will make its best efforts to set off its freight cost difference applicable to Alimport, as compared with other U.S. ports closer to Cuba. Alimport and Corpus Christi will commence mutual operations with one trial shipment of bulk commodities and build additional shipments as the business grows. In parallel, both parties will review the possible use of port facilities for refrigerated, bulk and containerized shipments. Corpus Christi will strive to identify additional exporters and shippers both in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S, which will be prepared to use port facilities for their actual supply and shipping contracts with Alimport. Each part agrees to keep the other party informed of the operation of the MOU and in further identification of mutual business opportunities. Alimport hereby extends an invitation to Corpus Christi executives to visit Cuba to review the progress of this MOU, possibly next September 2003, or at any other time that is deemed reasonable convenient. "We are confident we are in a position to start carrying some of their (Alimport's) grain cargoes," said United Americas president Joe Hinson. "We're kind of optimistic that one will be coming out of your grain elevator there at ADM in Corpus Christi." The port already has a letter from Sea Trade, which regularly brings frozen meat from Australia and New Zealand to Corpus Christi. The company's ships unload around 10,000 tons of meat, then sail to the East Coast to deliver the rest. The shipping company will open up 1,000 metric tons of space for shipments to Cuba on each of its vessels that comes to the port. Right now on its trading route, the vessels arrive in port every three weeks to unload wares, but don't pick up anything - and afterwards steam past Havana, said port trade director Tom Moore. Port Chairman Ruben Bonilla said Sea Trade could start moving agricultural products out of the port as early as August. United Americas is ready, too, company president Hinson said. "We believe in some point in time, in the not-too-distant future, the Cuban market will open up. And we want to be positioned to be ready do something there." So, how does a South Texas farmer benefit? To start selling to Cuba, an agriculture business first has to obtain an export license from the Department of Commerce. That's different from a license to travel to Cuba, which is granted on a case-by-case basis by the Treasury Department. Bill Davis, director of international sales at Loggins Meat Co. in Tyler, was in Havana with port officials last week when Alimport announced its agreement. The company is now pursuing an export license with the U.S. Department of Commerce in order to be positioned to do business. It can take up to six months for a license to process through, but Davis is optimistic. "I personally think in the future there's got to be trade with Cuba," Davis said. But ports across the United States - Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami; Pascagoula, Miss.; Savannah, Ga.; and New Orleans, to name a few - don't have a memorandum of understanding and are still trading with Cuba. Kavulich said he doesn't see the memo making a marked difference in Corpus Christi. Kavulich's New York-based U.S.-Cuba export trade group is privately funded, and more than 70 percent of the U.S. firms that have done business with Cuba since 2001 are members. "Is it the first port-specific agreement that Alimport signed? Yes. Will it result in substantial business for the port of Corpus Christi? Not in the short term or medium term, given what Cuba is buying and from where Cuba currently sources," Kavulich said. Currently, the majority of Cuba's grain products are coming from the Midwest. Port officials are trying to turn heads to Texas. Texas, with Majority Leader Tom DeLay's staunch opposition to relaxing Cuban trade sanctions, is having to overcome political climate hurdles to beat out other states' markets. But Texas' Department of Agriculture officials, who were also in Havana to witness the historic port agreement, have started a Texas Cuba Trade Alliance, to try and get into the action. The nonprofit organization was launched in February 2003, and estimates that Texas farmers could export as much as $54 million a year to Cuba. Moore emphasizes the port's ability to make exports cheaper for Cuba by selling South Texas products. "Rather than have a large inland freight bill carting this stuff around, we can get it in our back yard and give the opportunity to our regional farmers," Moore said. And he emphasized that some of Cuba's export needs are asked for in very small portions - 100 or 250 metric tons a pop at times - a good fit for the region and for one of the shipping companies that has agreed to carry port products. Scripps Howard correspondent Tara Copp can be reached at coppt@shns.com WHAT THE AGREEMENT SAYS Alimport will review its current U.S. cargo schedule in order to ship one or more of its U.S. contracted cargoes using the Port of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi will strive to offer competitive tariffs and rates to U.S. companies that are and may be engaged in business transactions with Alimport. Corpus Christi will make its best efforts to set off its freight cost difference applicable to Alimport, as compared with other U.S. ports closer to Cuba. Alimport and Corpus Christi will commence mutual operations with one trial shipment of bulk commodities and build additional shipments as the business grows. In parallel, both parties will review the possible use of port facilities for refrigerated, bulk and containerized shipments. Corpus Christi will strive to identify additional exporters and shippers both in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S, which will be prepared to use port facilities for their actual supply and shipping contracts with Alimport. Each part agrees to keep the other party informed of the operation of the MOU and in further identification of mutual business opportunities. Alimport hereby extends an invitation to Corpus Christi executives to visit Cuba to review the progress of this MOU, possibly next September 2003, or at any other time that is deemed reasonable convenient. lavozdecubalibre.com
|
Home
|
