Cuba and Panama Sign Trade Pact

(laht.com) HAVANA – Panama and Cuba signed a trade pact here Monday that will allow an increase in the trade of goods and services between the two countries.

Official Cuban sources told Efe that the accord was signed by Panamanian Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis and one of Cuba’s vice presidents, Ricardo Cabrisas.

Panama’s deputy minister of foreign trade, Severo Souza, who is accompanying Lewis on his visit to Cuba, described the agreement as a positive step in the constant strengthening of bilateral ties.

Souza led the Panamanian delegation that traveled to Havana in late January to negotiate the pact.

He told Efe at the time that the accord would allow Panama’s exports to the communist-ruled island to be increased from last year’s roughly $180 million to $400 million.

Cuba will also be able to multiply “three or four times” the goods and services it exports to the Central American country that currently amount to only $28 million.

Panama will be able to sell evaporated milk, condensed milk, processed cheese, pork, sausages, chicken products, eggs and more. Meanwhile Cuba sees a wider market for exports of medicines, reagents and cement, as well as honey.

Finance criteria have been established for handling transferrals by means of mechanisms that have been established for use by authorized companies, while the insurance field is also being studied.

Lewis, who reached the Cuban capital Sunday night, also met with Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon, official media said. EFE