Cuba Creates No Barriers to Trade With US - Foreign Trade Minister

Cuba is interested in unhampered development of the trade with the United States, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade Rodrigo Malmierca said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Malmierca met with US officials at the US Chamber of Commerce.

Havana "was not creating more barriers" to the mutual trade and considers that "it 'd be stupid for us to delay," the minister said at a press conference after the meeting as quoted by the USA Today daily.

Malmierca called for the removal of the decades-old economic embargo.

In December 2014, US President Barack Obama announced the United States would normalize relations with Cuba. The two countries reopened embassies in their respective capitals in July 2015 after more than 50 years of non-engagement.

Despite the rapprochement between the two countries, Washington continues to maintain a trade embargo on Havana that is mandated by the US Congress.