PORTLAND – A trade mission resulting in a commitment from Cuba to purchase $20 million of products from Maine companies underscores the growing importance of foreign trade for the state’s economy, Gov. John Baldacci said Tuesday.
Baldacci signed a trade agreement with Cuban officials Sunday calling for the purchase of items such as potatoes, dairy cows and apples.
The trip led to more sales commitments than three previous trade missions to France, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and Germany and Italy combined.
For the trip to Cuba, state officials and legislators were joined by representatives from lumber, potato, seafood, cattle, biotechnology and other companies. The delegation traveled to Cuba on Sunday and will return Saturday.
“This is a global economy, and what I think is especially pleasing is that Maine businesses are getting out on the international stage,” Baldacci said at a news conference at the Portland International Jetport after returning to Maine. “They’re competing very successfully on that international stage and gaining business.
“This isn’t just large corporations. It’s a lot of small farmers, sawmill manufacturers, seafood people, all successfully getting contracts.”
The Democratic governor, state officials and Maine businessmen went on a trade mission to France in October, to Germany and Italy in 2004, and to Ireland and the United Kingdom in 2003.
Maine businesses generated $5.2 million in sales from the France trip, $1.2 million from the Germany-Italy trip, and $7.5 million from the trip to Ireland and the United Kingdom, said Richard Coyle, president of the Maine International Trade Center. The trade center participated in, but did not organize, the trip to Cuba, which was coordinated by Cedar Spring Agricultural Co. of North Yarmouth.
Maine was ninth among the states in export growth between 2000-2004, Coyle said, with exports last year totaling a record $2.4 billion in product shipped to 164 countries.
“International trade is a bright spot in the Maine economy,” Coyle said.
While in Cuba, Baldacci signed a trade agreement with the head of Alimport, Cuba’s food import company, binding Cuba to buy $20 million of products by the end of July 2007. The agreement finalized and expanded on a preliminary $10 million export agreement signed last year by Robert Spear, then Maine’s agriculture commissioner, and the head of Alimport.
A decades-old U.S. embargo against communist Cuba limits travel and trade with the island. Food and agricultural products can be sold to Cuba on a cash-only basis under an exception created in 2000.
Immucell Corp., a Portland company that sells veterinary products for the dairy and beef industries, hopes to be among those that cash in. The company’s sales manager is in Cuba with the delegation.
With the help of Cedar Spring Agricultural Co., Immucell has been communicating with Cuban officials by e-mail and fax about selling products to Cuba’s dairy farmers, said Michael Brigham, president and chief executive officer. More than 90 percent of Immucell’s sales are now in the U.S.
“We don’t expect anything huge, but any incremental growth is worth that kind of effort,” Brigham said.
While in Cuba, Baldacci and others from Maine met with President Fidel Castro and talked about agricultural issues. Castro wanted to know how Maine dairy cows shipped to Cuba earlier this year were producing compared to dairy cows imported from Pennsylvania.
“There was no politics being discussed,” Baldacci said. “It was all about business and what was happening.”
The governor’s meeting with Castro prompoted criticism from Republican legislative leaders, who said it undermines longstanding American foreign policy and lends legitimacy to Castro’s communist regime.
“It’s fine for Maine farmers to be able to sell food to the people of Cuba, within federal law,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis, R-Sangerville. “It was not necessary for the governor to make a personal appearance and become a propaganda tool against our own government. It is not proper for the governor of Maine to be providing a brutal dictator with good publicity.”
Crystal Canney, Baldacci’s spokeswoman, said Maine is one of 37 states involved in trade with Cuba as allowed by federal law. “This had everything to do with Maine’s economy and nothing to do with politics,” she said.
AP-ES-12-13-05 1837EST
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