March2017-Flipbook

WASHINGTON REPORT
Signing Up
for the Push
Warming U.S.-Cuba
relations have resulted
in a lobbying boom
By Ana Radelat
Former President Obama’s normalization
of relations with Havana has prompted
dozens of U.S. companies to do something
they've never done, at least not in decades:
add Cuba and the embargo to their lobbying
agenda in Washington.
Last year, more than 120 companies,
lobbying firms, trade organizations, and
nonprofits notified Congress in writing
that they are working on Cuba issues.
That's a big jump from the three dozen or
so that filed similar forms in 2014, before
Obama’s executive orders on Cuba were
fully implemented.
Companies that have shown a new interest
in Cuba include Hilton International
and Starwood Hotels, Chevron, Cisco
Systems, Corning, Halliburton, Marriott,
Shell Oil, Orbitz, Royal Caribbean, and
nearly every major U.S. airline. Meanwhile,
others with a long-time interest in Cuba––
including farm groups and trade associations
representing U.S. businesses––have
increased their lobbying focus on Cuba.
Many companies and organizations,
including agricultural giant Louis Dreyfus,
several state farm federations, and cable
network giant Viacom specifically instructed
their Washington representatives
to lobby for legislation that would end or
curtail the U.S. embargo.
Kendall Keith, a lobbyist for Louis
20 CUBATRADE MARCH 2017
Dreyfus, said the commodity giant “is
interested in ways to facilitate trade.”
Keith said the introduction of legislation
that would facilitate payment terms
on shipments of U.S. farm products to
Cuba captured his company's attention.
He said Dreyfus is not lobbying for an
immediate end to the embargo but that
“interest has been growing to do some
minimal things. Maybe legalizing commercial
credit. That seemed to get some
traction last year.”
The number of issues involved in the
flurry of lobbying activity has increased
alongside the number of lobbyists.
The Tampa-based Florida Aquarium
hired a lobbyist to promote the reauthorization
of the Coral Reef Conservation
Act “and its implications for supporting
coordinated research with Cuba.” Cisco
Systems hired lobbyist Ian Rayder to take
part in “general discussions regarding
Cuba and (its) technology needs.” Meanwhile,
the National Association of Police
Organizations says it is lobbying to seek
“extraditions of cop-killers and violent
felons from Cuba.”
Even before this year’s bumper crop
of new registrations, lobbyists were being
hired to push for change with Cuba.
The National Cooperative Business
Association (NCBA) added Cuba to its
lobbying agenda and formed a U.S. Cuba
Cooperative Working Group just a few
months after Obama announced he wanted
to normalize relations.
“The idea is to promote U.S.-Cuba
collaboration whenever possible,” said
NCBA spokeswoman Sarah Crozier.
“Co-ops are the preferred form of business
in Cuba. As the former administration
moved to normalize relations, that accelerated
our work on the embargo.”
The Air Transport Association of
America, whose members include the
nation’s leading passenger and cargo airlines,
began lobbying on Cuba travel––alongside
major U.S. airlines––after Obama eased
travel restrictions and negotiated with the
Cuban government the re-establishments of
direct commercial flights.
The association’s lobbyist, Vaughn
Jennings, said his group’s members “serve
evolving markets all over the world” and
that Cuba suddenly became one of them.
Lobbying disclosure forms show that
even before Obama eased sanctions, the
Office of the Commissioner of Baseball
paid lobbying giant Baker & Hostetler to
work on “issues related to Cuba.” Since
then, Major League Baseball has hired
Dakota Strategies to lobby on the “issue
of tourist travel to Cuba revolving around
baseball activities.” H