Cuba-Houston Sea Connection

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Jan. 16 — The huge Houston Port Authority has added a weekly shipping line to Cuba in a move that could bring considerable business if the US embargo on the Caribbean island is ever dropped.

“Every week, the vessels will stop in Kingston, Jamaica, before moving on to Havana and Santiago de Cuba from Houston’s Bayport terminal,” reported the Houston Chronicle.

Freight to Cuba is currently limited to one-way US to Cuba foodstuffs and medical products allowed passage on a cash-only sales basis under an exemption to the blockade for humanitarian reasons.

Jeff Moseley president and CEP of the Greater Houston Partnership told the Chronicle: “What we’re witnessing is the important first step.”

Several US port cities like Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans are also eager for a share of the vast trade potential if and when the half century blockade is ever lifted.

Nonetheless, hopes that the Obama administration would move to end the travel prohibition on US citizens visiting Cuba, and partially or totally lift the trade ban, have dimmed a year into the President’s term.