Cuba signs accord of understanding with US port city of Manatee

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 20, 2003

Cuba signs accord of understanding with US port city of Manatee

An agreement of understanding was signed in Havana on Wednesday between a Cuban company and the authorities of the southern US port city of Manatee.

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An agreement of understanding was signed in Havana on Wednesday between a Cuban company and the authorities of the southern US port city of Manatee.

"The goal is increasing the volume of cargo through Manatee," Pedro Alvarez, director of Cuba's food-importing firm Alimport, said after signing the document with David McDonald, executive director of the Manatee port, located on the coast of the southernUS state of Florida.

Acknowledging that only 30 hours of navigation separates Manatee from Havana, Alvarez said he is currently working to increase the Cuban purchases of livestock from the United States, mainly from Florida.

With the signing of the agreement, Manatee joined 17 other US harbors, five of them in Florida, in maintaining links with Cuba, in spite of the blockade imposed by the US government on the Caribbean country four decades ago.

Meanwhile, Joe McClash, president of the Manatee Port Authority,said these trade links would be followed soon by "peaceful coexistence relations" between the two countries.

The unusual, one-way trade agreement only allows US firms to sell agricultural products to Cuba and they must pay in cash.

According to Cuban sources, deals worth 590 million US dollars are currently being negotiated between the Cuban government and the US ports, and 510 million dollars would have been paid by the end of the year.

Trade between Cuba and US, which do not hold formal diplomatic relations, reached an unprecedented level after Washington proposed in late 2001 to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, which was seriously hit by the Hurricane Mitch in November that year.

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