The Memphis Commercial Appeal - Cohen: Normalizing relations with Cuba will bring trade, travel opportunities

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By Michael Collins

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen believes that when the American flag rises over the U.S. Embassy in Cuba Friday for the first time in half a century, other barriers will start to fall.

The normalizing of relations with Cuba will open up more trade opportunities for American companies, give Americans more opportunities to travel to the Caribbean island nation and maybe even provide an opportunity for democracy to take root there someday, Cohen said.

"We can break down some barriers and, I think, eventually have democracy in Cuba if they have more contact with Americans," the Memphis Democrat said.

Cohen and seven other Congress members will travel to Cuba Friday with Secretary of State John Kerry for a flag-raising ceremony marking the official reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

President Barack Obama announced last year his intentions to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in 54 years. The flag-raising ceremony will mark the conversion of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana into a full-fledged embassy.

Cohen has long argued for opening up relations with Cuba, which sits just 90 miles off the Florida coast. He traveled to Havana four years ago on a fact-finding trip with two other members of Congress. He also is cosponsor of the Free Trade with Cuba Act, which would lift the trade embargo against Cuba that has been in effect since 1960.

"I've always thought it was insane for America, with Cuba so close, not to have relations and not to have an embassy and not to work with Cuba," he said.

The normalization of relations with Cuba will open up trade opportunities for Memphis companies, Cohen said.

AutoZone, for example, would find many opportunities to make money because of Cuba's aging fleet of American cars, he said. Cuba also could be a good market for FedEx and the medical device industry. In return, Cohen said, the U.S. could benefit from Cuba's medical advances in the treatment of diabetes.

"I think it's going to be a two-way street with medicine," Cohen said. "It's certainly a two-way street with economics. But it's a freedom issue beyond all. Just like they can travel to China, just like they can travel to Vietnam, (Americans) should be able to travel to Cuba."

On Friday's trip, Cohen plans to take a Minnie Minoso baseball cap with him in honor of the Chicago White Sox trailblazer known as the "Cuban Comet." Minoso, who died last March, gave Cohen a baseball when he was just a kid, and the two developed a lifelong friendship.

Cohen said he intends to return the friendly gesture by giving the Minoso baseball cap to a Cuban official.

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