Optimism, And Questions, About U.S.-Cuba Shipping

When shipping executive Jay Brickman headed to Miami International Airport early Wednesday for his 50-minute charter flight to Havana, he had no idea President Obama was about to publicly end half a century of U.S. hostility toward Cuba.

By the time Brickman had boarded his plane, the whole world knew.

“I had planned this trip before, so this makes it even more productive once we’re there,” said Brickman, vice president of Jacksonville, Florida-based Crowley Liner Services.

Earlier this year, Crowley became the first customer at Cuba’s nearly $1 billion port at Mariel, on the island’s north coast just west of Havana, when the carrier delivered 50 containers, mostly frozen chicken, from Port Everglades, Florida.

Crowley operates weekly liner service to Cuba on southbound voyages to Central America. The carrier first called at Cuba in December 2001, and now operates weekly service from Port Everglades on southbound voyages to Central America.

The company’s service to Cuba was launched shortly after the Cold War-era U.S. trade embargo was revised to permit U.S. companies to export agricultural commodities to the island for humanitarian reasons. U.S. imports from Cuba remain banned.

The limited exemption for exports, and possibly the 53-year-old embargo, may become a thing of the past if Obama gets his way.

But ending the embargo would require congressional action, something that’s politically questionable.

Much will depend on how quickly the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) relaxes its rules on Cuban access to U.S. banks and the financing of authorized trade. In 2005, the Treasury Department clarified its interpretation of the law by stating that U.S. agricultural exports must be paid up front in cash, through third-party financial institutions.