CubaTrade-April2017-FLIPBOOK

In a nod to the new U.S.-Cuba rapprochement that began in
December 2014, Carrión had the bank produce a music documentary
and CD, Cuba y Puerto Rico, in 2015. The bank releases
a special Christmas music CD every December, but that year’s
was a special gesture as the bank explored the Cuban market for a
financial product it could launch.
“The cultural affinity jumped out at us immediately, and we
decided to feature the historic musical relationship and special
bond of our two countries in the 2015 edition,” he told Cuba
Trade. “Today, as we look back, we can say without hesitation
that it was that cultural exchange that led directly to our card
business in Cuba.”
Carrión is referring to the MasterCard Popular launched
last year for use by tourists who visit Cuba. “It has been a great
success thus far, and we continue to explore other opportunities,”
including serving as a facilitator for U.S. companies establishing
a Puerto Rico presence to export to Cuba, as well as launching a
Popular branch network and lending operation in Havana.
“We realize some of this will take time, since the embargo
would have to be liberalized further,” he says. “But taking a long
view is in the nature of doing business with Cuba at this point,
and we’re okay with that.”
THE NATURE OF THE BUSINESS
Carrión’s conclusions on the nature of doing business with Cuba
include the historic and cultural ties with Puerto Rico, a bond
not shared with any other jurisdiction in the United States. But
beyond history and culture, Puerto Rico offers unique, competitive
advantages within the context of U.S. trade with Cuba.
Above all else, Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since that
1898 war with Spain.
“It is far more important than most people realize, and it can
help any American company in its efforts to penetrate the Cuban
market,” said Wilfred Labiosa, a principal at Cuban Strategic
Partnerships, a New York based firm that helps companies identify
and capitalize on opportunities created by the normalization of
U.S.-Cuban relations.
Labiosa, a Puerto Rican with strong personal ties to Cuba,
plays the culture card in his own right, promoting artistic exchanges
between galleries in Havana and San Juan. “It is a big
door opener and relationship builder,” he says.
The PRMA’s Masses, keenly aware of the potential trade
advantages that cultural exchanges bring, was himself born in
Cuba and migrated to Puerto Rico with his parents at an early
age. Masses is easily Puerto Rico’s biggest Cuba booster, having
organized two trade missions and now planning a third, slated for
later this year to Havana and Santiago de Cuba.
“Puerto Rico has a number of big advantages to offer any
U.S. company looking to do business in Cuba,” he says. These include
a series of incentives that slash a company’s tax burden dramatically—federal
taxes doesn’t apply on the island, and Puerto
Rico’s Treasury Department taxes exports (including to the U.S.
mainland) at only 4 percent. Puerto Rico also has a high concentration
of coveted engineering and management talent, advanced
infrastructure, and a strategic location in the eastern Caribbean.
84 CUBATRADE APRIL 2017