Cuba Business Summit Cancelled; Accepting Commercial, Economic & Political Realities

Cortlandt, New York-based Momentum Event Group (www.momentumevents.com), which organized well-attended and well-organized conferences in New York City in 2015 and in 2016 that focused upon commerce with the Republic of Cuba, has cancelled its 3rd Cuba Opportunity Summit scheduled for 23 October 2017.

The previous conferences were attended by senior-level company (United States and other country) representatives, senior-level United States government representatives, and senior-level Republic of Cuba representatives.

The unstated, but logical primary reasons are the continuing health issues of employees of the United States Department of State who were assigned to the United States Embassy in Havana, Republic of Cuba, and the focus by the Trump Administration to discourage both travel to and commerce with the Republic of Cuba.

The only type of individual who would today seek to be a panelist at a Republic of Cuba-focused commercial event would likely not be one for whom paying participants would want to hear, as they would be seeking to market opportunities contrary to the following realities:

The issues relating to:

1) the health of United States nationals with diplomatic status at the United States Embassy in Havana, issues which commenced in 2016 and the undetermined response by the Obama Administration;

2) the non-publicized (either by the Trump Administration or Castro Administration) expulsion in May 2017 of two diplomats accredited to the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Washington DC;  the Trump Administration uncharacteristically did not take credit in May 2017 for action not taken by the Obama Administration;

3) the continued support by the government of the Republic of Cuba for and benefits received from the government of Venezuela;

4) the continued commercial, economic and political outreach by the government of the Republic of Cuba to the People's Republic of China, Islamic Republic of Iran, and Russian Federation;

5) and the pending issuance by the Trump Administration of new and revised regulations and policies for individuals and companies relating to travel to and transactions with Republic of Cuba government-operated entities;

will further negatively impact an already corrosive commercial, economic and political bilateral environment.  Any expectation of changes to statutes by the United States Congress is currently illusionary. 

The interest by United States companies will continue to deteriorate unless the government of the Republic of Cuba accepts significant components of the Obama Administration initiatives and does so quickly.