Nixon's Cuba trip highlights trade prospects

If the governments can work out some significant issues, Gov. Jay Nixon said last week after leading a trade delegation to the island nation Cuba, Missouri could experience some great new trade benefits.

"This was an important opportunity for Missouri farmers and businesses to work to sell their products to another foreign market," Nixon told reporters during a conference call. "We went to Cuba because Missouri farmers and workers produce the highest-quality products in the world, and finding new markets boosts our Missouri economy.

"Quite frankly, when we sell things abroad, it means jobs at home."

Although manufactured goods - including Missouri-made trucks - may be part of future trade opportunities, the governor said Missouri agriculture products show the most promise in the near future.

At a forum in Cuba last Monday, Nixon reported: "I announced that Cuba formally accepted the shipment of 20 tons of high-quality, long-grain Missouri rice."

Last year, the governor reminded reporters, Missouri became the fourth-largest rice-producing state in the United States.

"Rice is a staple of the Cuban diet and, yet, no United States rice has been exported to Cuba since 2008," he said. "The shipment of the Missouri rice was a big news story in Cuba.

"Cubans are familiar with Missouri rice because Cuba was once a leading market for rice from Missouri. Our long-grain rice is very good and tremendously appreciated."

If the details can be worked out, Nixon said, "When we get more of the market, it will replace Vietnamese rice which is way more expensive to get there."

However, trading with Cuba is not just about rice.

"This trade mission has convinced me and our delegation that Cuba is a tremendous opportunity for Missouri-grown exports," the governor said. "Cubans consume what Missouri farmers produce - soybeans, corn, rice, beef, dairy, poultry, hogs, cotton, wine, bio-diesel along with sustainable energy, fertilizers and crop-nutrition products."

There are some trade products that could come to the U.S. as well, he said - although the main emphasis right now would be Missouri products going to the island nation.

"Cuba has a fair amount of nickel that they mine," Nixon explained. "It has a vibrant sugar and coffee (production) and a very growing and vibrant organic vegetable and fruit (market).

"I've invited the Cuban government to send a delegation to Missouri to further explore areas where our interests align and where we can have a better opportunity to advance both of our economies - and that means better lives for the people in both nations."

However, the governor acknowledged, Cuba right now doesn't have a good reputation for paying its bills.

"It's been a problem, and until we get that problem solved, you're not going to have the confidence it takes for bilateral trade," he said. "We still have some hurdles to get through on the embargo and on banking and finance to be able to actually close these deals.

"So Congress in the United States is going to have to make some decisions as well as others as we move forward about opening up the ability to bank there."

Some of the issue involves the long-time, U.S.-led embargo against Cuba and its products, prompted by the Castro-led revolution in the late-1950s, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Soviet Union-caused missile crisis in 1962.

However, Nixon noted, the Soviet Union breakup in 1989 left Cuba in the cold.

"When the USSR broke up, Russia removed its support and trade and its presence in Cuba," he said. "When they pulled back $6 billion, $7 billion a year, they quit trading sugar beets with them.

"(The Russians) quit buying their nickel that they mine there.

"And it had a significantly bad effect on the Cuban economy."

Based on his conversations with Cuban officials and citizens during the trade trip, Nixon said Cubans no longer see themselves aligned with Russia, "and I don't think we should either."

Still, he acknowledged, many in America - including more than a few in Congress - view Cuba with great caution.

"I appreciate and understand the human rights issue and the lack of competition," the Missouri governor said. "When nations trade, communicate and take part in cultural exchanges, both sides benefit.

"The Cubans we met with were universally friendly and warm and excited about the potential to raise living standards and the opportunities for the next generations."

Nixon hopes Missouri can be a strong part of that.

"In my career as governor, this is my 13th foreign trade mission," he noted, "and last year, Missouri exported more than $13.6 billion in products around the globe.

"That compares to $9.5 billion in 2009 - that is a 43 percent increase."