The trumpet: “What's Ahead for Cuba?” EU playing significant role

theTrumpet.com“What's Ahead for Cuba?” EU playing significant role

Already, over the last decade, EU-Latin American trade has doubled—making Latin America the EU’s second-largest trading partner. EU exports totaled $51 billion, while its imports from Latin America amounted to nearly $46 billion (AP Worldstream, May 14). And the Cuban government is hungry for a larger slice of the economic pie.

For a number of years, firms from EU nations—notably Germany, France, Italy and Spain—have been actively investing in Cuba. According to The Week in Germany of May 14, 1999, “German makers of machine tools and factory equipment, chemical and pharmaceuticals, and environmental technology see considerable potential in Cuba” (emphasis mine throughout). In March of this year, the EU Foreign Ministry reaffirmed its position on Cuba, in effect since 1996, which states the EU will tie its cooperation with Havana to reforms within the Castro regime.