Cuba's international trade

Glaustai 09-02-2015

Cuba's main imports are machinery, food and fuel products, while its major exports are refined fuels, sugar, tobacco, nickel and pharmaceuticals. In addition to merchandise exports, Cuba pays for much-needed imports through the export of services (tourism, medical personnel working abroad), remittances from Cubans living out of the country and finance from outside benefactors. The island recently reformed its foreign investment law and opened a Chinese-style 'special economic zone' around the new container terminal in Mariel with the aim of attracting additional foreign direct investment. President Obama's new policy on Cuba does not amount to lifting the US embargo as such, but rather expands and facilitates a specific range of possibilities for commercial and private exchange.