The Cuba Effect: What Normalized United States-Cuba Relations Means for Economies and Freight Flows in the Gulf of Mexico

One of the last remaining vestiges of Cold War hostility and impediments to trade is the US economic embargo of Cuba, in place since 1960. Increasingly seen as a policy failure, the US has taken steps in the past two years to normalize relations with Cuba. American efforts to open Cuba to two-way commerce serve both national security and economic foreign policy agendas. For Cubans, removal of the embargo represents an opportunity for normal relations with the world’s largest economy and access to capital and markets that accompany it. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of normalized US-Cuba relations on freight flows in the Gulf of Mexico. Working within a multiple streams framework, the investigators examined how Gulf economies change under politically ambiguous conditions through a series of 20 semistructured qualitative interviews and content analysis of secondary data sources. Specifically, the study explored the behavior of interested individuals from the US and Cuba, so-called policy entrepreneurs, and their influence on policymaking resulting in economic change. Research results suggest that policy entrepreneurs from the US agriculture sector were instrumental in building export relationships with Cuba following passage of the 2000 Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act. Both agriculture and tourism sectors in the US and Cuba experienced immediate increases in activity as a result of normalized relations. The US embargo of Cuba remains an impediment to two-way freight flows but participants identified textile manufacturing as a future growth industry in the event of its removal.

• Record URL:
  • http://ntc.umd.edu/sites/default/files/documents/research/NTC2016-SU-R-11%20Bethany%20Stich.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://mti.umd.edu/sites/mti.umd.edu/files/documents/NTC2016-SU-R-11%20Bethany%20Stich.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  • http://ntc.umd.edu/node/154
• Summary URL:
  • https://mti.umd.edu/project/ntc2016-su-r-11-trade-flow-implications-opening-cuba
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/62867
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of New Orleans

  2000 Lakeshore Drive
  New Orleans, LA  United States  70148

  National Transportation Center at Maryland

  1124 Glenn Martin Hall
  University of Maryland
  College Park, MD  United States  20742

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Stich, Bethany M
  • Griffith, Kyle
  • Thornton, Dennis
• Publication Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; Maps; References;
• Pagination: 29p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Commodity flow; Economic analysis; International relations; Policy
• Geographic Terms: Cuba; Gulf of Mexico; United States
• Subject Areas: Economics; Freight Transportation; Policy;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01666287
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTC2014-SU-R-11
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 19 2018 9:48AM