Menendez Lambastes Chamber Decision to Lead Cuba Business Delegation
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce decision to send a business delegation to Cuba this week disregards ongoing labor abuses and overwhelming state financial control in the country, said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., in a May 26 letter to Chamber President Thomas Donohue. The Cuban government has implemented only “cosmetic” changes to its economic policy in recent years as a means to attract “badly-needed foreign investment,” said Menendez.
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The government continues to infringe on free market activity through seizing foreign investment assets and fabricating financial and espionage violations, said Menendez. Cuban officials also routinely violate international labor rights standards, he added. “The Cuban government’s labor and employment practices are in direct violation of International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions on freedom of association, collective bargaining, discrimination, the protection of wages, and the abolition of forced labor,” said Menendez. “Regrettably, Cuba’s recent foreign investment law makes no efforts to bring the country’s poor labor conditions into accordance with international standards.”
Legitimate labor reform is a necessary prerequisite to lifting commercial and financial sanctions on Cuba, according to U.S. law, said Menendez. Donohue, the lead in the Chamber delegation, publicized the trip as exploratory. “Since I was last in Cuba 15 years ago, a reform program has reportedly taken 600,000 workers from government payrolls and allowed the number of self-employed entrepreneurs in the country to triple to more than 450,000,” Donohue said (here). “This trip will provide us with a first-hand look at changes in Cuba’s economic policies and whether or not they are affecting the ability to do business there.”