Cuba says U.S. companies won't get preferential treatment

Cuba says U.S. companies won't get preferential treatment
HAVANA

(Reuters) - U.S. companies can expect the same treatment as those from
the rest of the world, receiving neither special benefits nor
punishment, if there is a further commercial opening between Cuba and
the United States, Cuba's foreign trade minister said.

"U.S. business people will enjoy the same treatment that is offered to
the rest of the world that has ties with the island today," Rodrigo
Malmierca, the minister of foreign trade and investment, said in an
interview published in official Cuban media on Monday.

"It's true that we will view positively, once the U.S. laws permit it,
that they will be able to trade and invest. But that does not imply a
preferential treatment," Malmierca said.

The United States and Cuba announced in December they would restore
diplomatic relations and seek to normalize trade and travel that were
disrupted more than 50 years ago during the Cold War.

U.S. President Barack Obama has relaxed some parts of the U.S. economic
embargo against Cuba. Although he has authority to do more, he needs the
Republican-controlled Congress to remove the embargo definitively.

The opening has generated tremendous interest from U.S. companies
looking to crack a market that has long been closed, but even with a
relaxation of the embargo U.S. companies need an agreement from the
Cuban government or a Cuban state company to do business on the
Caribbean island.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Ted Botha)

Source: Cuba says U.S. companies won't get preferential treatment |
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