Growth in exports compensases for overseas purchases
• Cuba’s trade during 2005 easily surpassed that registered in 1991, before the Special Period

BY RAISA PAGES—Granma daily staff writer—

CUBA’s foreign trade grew by 23% last year, and nearly 10 billion pesos worth of trade was carried out, surpassing what was registered in 1991, before the start of the Special Period.

Growth in exports of goods and services in 2005 compensated for spending on imports, affirmed Raúl de la Nuez, minister of foreign trade, in an interview with Granma daily.

The changes that occurred in Cuban foreign trade include an increase in exported services, which amounts to 70% of income obtained through that concept.

Another change that has developed over recent years is greater exchange with other countries in the region. The American continent accounts for 50% of Cuba’s trade balance, while Europe now accounts for 29%. Asia is the third continent on the list, with 19%, with particular participation by China, while the rest corresponds to Africa and Oceania.

The country’s main trading partners are Venezuela, China, Spain and Canada. In Latin America, other top partners are Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay, and increases have been registered with Caribbean nations.

De la Nuez commented that his ministry’s reorganization has made it possible to concentrate the administration of imports into one group of companies, enabling the country to get better prices and lines of credit, and lowering the final customer’s administrative costs for purchases.

In 1991, there were 192 enterprises authorized to make imports, and that number has been reduced to 87, he noted.

He explained that this tendency to centralization in exports is not exclusive to Cuba, given that it is something that is occurring on a world scale, where large companies assume the buying and selling of merchandise, given that prices are better when goods are purchased in large quantities.

The minister noted that in order to increase participation by national suppliers to replace imports, diverse mechanisms have been implemented, including tariff protection for products with competitiveness on the national market.