Last month, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina Gonzalez held talks in Havana with Bahamas Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell. In an email interview, Gerardo González Núñez, professor of economic and administrative sciences at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, explained Cuba’s economic relations with other Caribbean nations.
WPR: What are Cuba's economic priorities in the Caribbean in terms of countries and sectors?
Gerardo González Núñez: Economic relations between Cuba and the Caribbean have not been very stable or large-scale. Trade between Cuba and the Caribbean has been dominated by the exchange of petroleum products and manufactures in the area of electronics, metals and chemicals. Countries that have been the main players in this trade have been Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic. Technical cooperation in the area of human resource development has been more meaningful, with emphasis on the fields of health and sports. Students from several islands in the Caribbean have graduated from school in medicine and other health professions in Cuba, and Cuba has provided a remarkable level of assistance to Haiti in the medical field. These are the fields that will shape Cuba’s priorities in the future.