The USCBC Attends FIHAV 2016
In 2015, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched the Cuba Business Council (USCBC) and since then the group has become the premier business advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening the economic and commercial ties between Cuba and the United States.
The Council has already led several delegations to Cuba, hosted dozens of roundtable conversations about U.S.-Cuba policy with U.S. government officials, welcomed two Cuban ministers to Washington for the first time in over fifty years, and led dozens of educational meetings on Capitol Hill to explain the importance of lifting the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
“The private sector has long sought a commercial relationship with Cuba that offers opportunities for Americans and Cubans alike, a commercial relationship with the power to bridge differences and put both countries on a path toward productive and friendly relations befitting such close neighbors,” wrote Jodi Hanson Bond, President of the USCBC and Vice President for the Americas of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a message to attendees of the 34th edition of the Havana International Fair.
Both Mrs. Bond and Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Commerce Secretary and currently chairman of the USCBC Board, together with Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and head of its International Affairs Division, are heading this week’s U.S. delegation to FIHAV 2016.
"There has been significant, historic progress on the political front while on the commercial, only incremental progress," Mr. Brilliant told press members covering Cuba’s largest tradeshow. His group represents corporations eying or already in Cuba, including American Airlines, Dow Chemical Co., Fifth Street Asset Management, First Data Corp. and General Electric Co.
