United States - Cuban Trade

1. Should the United States seek to tighten the economic grip on Cuba? If so, why?

US should not extend the economic restrictions on Cuba, mainly because it would more likely hurt its economy than achieve its foreign policy aims, which have proved to be unattainable for last 40 years.

On one hand US may seek to slow down the flow of dollars to Cuba to weaken Castro’s positions and speed his downfall, however it will hit American economy by mostly affecting air charter companies and money-transfer services now operating in Cuba.
2. Should the United States normalize business relations with Cuba? If so, should the United States stipulate any conditions?
There are several reasons why US should normalize business relations with Cuba:

1)First of all their own economic gains. Recent studies demonstrate that the embargo hurts American companies, causing Americans to miss out on billions of dollars in potential trade with Cuba.
2) US should overcome their political pride and antipathy towards Fidel Castro’s persona and act accordingly to their proclaimed world benefactor policy. Cuba’s economy would only benefit from trade with its northern neighbour. Americans refuse to see that they themselves can do a great deal to improve the conditions of people in Cuba.
3) Furthermore, the political aim of the embargo- to overthrow Castro’s regime and improve human rights in Cuba has not been achieved, the embargo has done little to foster democracy and it is almost impossible to believe that it will in the future.
4) Besides, with US burdening Cuba with more and more restrictions, Cubans have someone to blame convinced by Cuban propoganda that the poverty of Cuba is the fault of the USA embargo. US could shatter Castro’s position more by depriving him of justification for Cuba’s shortcomings than by continuing the embargo.
5) Anything Cuba wants to buy, they can equally buy from Europe, or elsewhere if they so desire. So the embargo punishes only USA manufactures. It hinders not anybody in Cuba.

I largely agree with the so called ”smart sanctions policy”.
“A smart sanctions policy is one that imposes coercive pressures on specific individuals and entities and that restricts selective products or activities, while minimizing unintended economic and social consequences for vulnerable populations and innocent bystanders.” (http://www.giraldilla.com/ASCE2003.htm, Targeting Castro, Not Cuba: Considering a SmartSanctions Approach toward Cuba, Brian Alexander, August 2003)

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