On Flight to Cuba, Cuomo Touts Trade Mission

En route to Cuba on his first international trade mission, Gov. Andrew Cuomo touted the trip as a prime example of New York’s renewed commitment to promoting new business opportunities.

The governor, traveling with a small delegation of New York business executives and legislative leaders, also responded to criticism from skeptics, who have questioned the purpose of his trip and his decision to visit a country with a poor human rights record.

While downplaying those concerns, he emphasized his case that New York has become a business-friendly state.

“The more aggressive government, the entrepreneurial government—it’s not an oxymoron—is the one that actually wins,” Cuomo told reporters aboard the flight to Havana, where he was scheduled to meet with Cuban officials this afternoon. “And this is the epitome of it. We are going to work with business leaders to go out and court and open new business markets.”

Cuomo scrambled to be the first governor to visit Cuba after President Barack Obama in December announced a groundbreaking framework to renew diplomatic ties with the Caribbean nation. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro recently held a historic meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Panama, the first visit between the two countries’ top leaders in over 50 years.

But Cuomo’s rush to visit the island has raised some eyebrows. Some Cuba experts wonder whether the visit is premature, given that a U.S. trade embargo and banking sanctions are still in place. Republican state lawmakers have argued that any increase in exports to Cuba would simply help prop up the Castro regime. Others have suggested that Cuomo seems to be driven more by generating good press and foreign policy experience than securing trade deals.

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, whose mother was a refugee from Castro’s Cuba, issued a statement on Monday blasting the trade mission. Malliotakis, who is not a part of the delegation, said that when she visited relatives on the island in 2009, the situation was “dire.”

“It is not because of the embargo, but because of the oppression from the communist Castro regime,” she said. “Formal recognition of the Cuban government will do nothing to improve conditions. Acknowledgement of the Castro regime as a legitimate representative of its people will only benefit the regime itself, and not its citizenry.”

Cuomo acknowledged most trade opportunities are still with the Cuban government, but said it was time to ditch the failed effort to isolate the country through the embargo. Engaging with the country, he said, would be a more productive way to address human rights abuses.

“My father, God rest his soul, said in 1996, lift the embargo,” Cuomo said, referring to former Gov. Mario Cuomo. “Isolation is not working. It’s not having the desired effect. Go to plan B.”

“You’re not going to address these issues by saying, well, you’re wrong, we’re right, you do this,” he added. “But as part of a dialogue, as part of a growing relationship that has mutuality, that’s the way of doing it.”

Speaking with reporters, Cuomo acknowledged that the opening up of Cuba may move slowly, but asserted that it was important to gain a foothold now. Companies like JetBlue, which already do a brisk business in the nearby Dominican Republic, could capitalize on the opening. JetBlue, which operated the charter flight, also sent its CEO and other officials as part of the delegation.

It may take time, Cuomo said, but “Cuba is going to be an exciting market to be in for business.”

“The question is how quickly it opens and how quickly it develops and you can argue that and different geniuses have different opinions on the rate of opening up the Cuba market, but nobody says the market is not going to open up, and nobody says there are no business opportunities,” Cuomo said. “They’re arguing the ‘when,’ and I’ll take that. I also believe that the market is going to open sooner rather than later.”

The flight landed at Havana’s José Martí International Airport late Monday morning, and the delegation will return after only one night, departing in the early afternoon on Tuesday. The short duration of the trip has spurred questions about whether that is enough time to launch the kind of trade relationship the governor is touting, with one observer even calling the trip “dumb.”

Asked if spending only 26 hours in Cuba’s capital would give him enough time to build a foundation for a fruitful trade relationship, Cuomo said he thought it would. He later suggested that it would not be the state’s—or his—only mission to Cuba.

“I think being the first is a very positive statement,” he said. “And being aggressive in wanting to establish the relationship sends both messages: This is a new New York, it is a different New York, it is not anti-business, it is pro-business. It is pro-business in a big way, it’s leading trade missions, and it’s first off the mark. The government has that aggressive quality that New York business has. Is there an opportunity? Let’s run and seize it. It does that. And from a foreign relations point of view, it says to Cuba, New York is there.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said that Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis was a refugee from Cuba. In fact, her mother was a refugee from Cuba.