Perdue set for trade visit to Cuba

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Sonny Perdue, a free-market Republican, will lead a trade delegation to communist Cuba in June.

The United States maintains a trade embargo against Cuba in hopes of pushing the dictatorial Castro regime towards democracy. But President Obama continues to loosen trade restrictions.

While governors, state legislators and agriculture commissioners have traveled to Cuba over the past decade, it’s rare for a sitting Southern governor to visit the nation.

But Perdue believes business opportunities for Georgians trump domestic politics, said spokesman Bert Brantley. Plus, the governor considers that commerce “opens up cultural exchanges and opportunities to draw closer in other areas,” Brantley added.

“At the end of the day, the governor believes good policy makes good politics,” Brantley said. And “the stakes are high in terms of what Georgia has to sell, particularly in the agriculture industry."

Washington allows exports of farm products, medicines, medical equipment and telecommunications equipment to Cuba.

Georgia exported $42.5 million worth of goods -- mostly chickens -- to Cuba last year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The state ranks sixth overall in the volume of U.S. exports.

The U.S. chicken and egg industry exported $141 million in broilers last year to Cuba, according to the Stone Mountain-based USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.

If , as expected, Obama lifts other restrictions on travel and trade, said Heidi Green, deputy commissioner for global commerce with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, then Georgia wants to be positioned to take advantage of  future tourism and business opportunities.

“Georgia is strategically located to Cuba with Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and both of our ports,” she said. “It’s very appropriate for us to continue to grow this relationship.”

The Economic Development Department is soliciting businesses to join Perdue on the June 6-8 trip to Havana. For $2,450 per person, the agency will arrange airfare (from Miami), hotel, meals, ground transportation and interpretation services. No word yet on whether Perdue or others will meet with President Raul Castro or brother Fidel, the former president.

Tommy Irvin, the state’s agriculture commissioner, has drummed up business in Cuba repeatedly since 1999. In 2007, the top GOP leadership in the General Assembly joined U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) on a trade trip to Havana.

“We sell to China and Russia, which are both communist countries,” noted Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Terry Coleman, who also went on the 2007 trip. “And what is so ironic about our relationship is that China is a much bigger potential threat than Cuba.”