WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A trade finance to Cuba is not expected in the near future because of the quantity of work that needs to be completed, including the country's payments due to export credit agencies, US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) Business Development Officer Kate Bishop told Sputnik on Monday.
"It looks like trade restrictions are easing, but trade finance, which is where we come in, I think that would be much further down the road before it would even be considered," Bishop said on the sidelines of the Fifth Annual Doing Business with the BRICS Conference on Monday.
Bishop explained that the situation went this way as there were "payments still due to export credit agencies, including Export-Import bank, and all of that would need to be resolved."
In December 2014, former President Barack Obama announced that the United States would normalize relations with Cuba after more than 50 years of non-engagement and hostilities.
The two countries reopened embassies in their respective capitals in July 2015. However, the congressionally-mandated US trade embargo continues to remain in effect.
