Reciprocity Should Drive US-Cuba Normalization

Reciprocity Should Drive US-Cuba Normalization
Article By: John Veroneau
Covington & Burling LLP
posted on: Friday, May 23, 2014

Much has been written about current US-Cuba economic relations and
whether the embargo should be ended. However, little has been written
about what principles should shape US policy when the tectonic plates of
US-Cuba relations eventually begin to shift — whenever that might be. A
study released last week by the Peterson Institute for International
Economics nicely fills this void.

The study, entitled, "Economic Normalization with Cuba: A Roadmap for
Policy Makers", was done by Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Barbara Kotschwar
and provides a blueprint for restoring normal economic relations in a
manner that serves the mutual best interests of the United States and Cuba.

The study calls on US policymakers to pursue a new economic relationship
based on reciprocity and avoid a situation as occurred in Russia where
US markets were opened without appreciation that the Russian economy
would become dominated by oligarchs to the detriments not only of US
exporters but the Russian people themselves. The Peterson study urges US
policymakers to assure that, before US tourists start spending millions
in Cuba and before US consumers begin buying imports from Cuba, that US
businesses and workers have reciprocal access to the Cuba market.

Source: Reciprocity Should Drive US-Cuba Normalization | The National
Law Review -
http://www.natlawreview.com/article/reciprocity-should-drive-us-cuba-normalization