Cuba’s potential will hinge on next U.S. president, says lawyer

Cuba’s massive potential as a Caribbean transshipment hub will depend just as much on who is the next U.S. president as it will on potential reform of the communist state post-Fidel Castro, said Michael Roberts, a partner in the Washington office of law firm Venable LLP.

U.S. law (Helms-Burton) prohibits opening relations with Cuba until a democratic government is in place, but Roberts told Shippers’ NewsWire that a U.S. presidential victory for Barack Obama would lead to dramatic changes in the embargo policy. He is less hopeful of change in the event of victory for either John McCain or Hillary Clinton.

It’s highly unlikely that there will be a meaningful change in U.S. policy before the end of this current administration, said Roberts, who while working for Crowley Maritime from 1991 until early 2000, was responsible for obtaining the first licenses for commercial shipping from the United States to Cuba. He also worked on helping pass the 1996 Maritime Security Act, the Coast Guard Authorization Act and the 1998 Ocean Shipping Reform Act.  

Source: American Shipper