HAVANA — Cuba has turned down American storm relief handouts, but is asking for trade restrictions to be lifted so it can buy American materials to assist in its recovery from Hurricane Ike, officials said yesterday.
"Cuba hasn't asked the United States government to give it anything," the Foreign Ministry said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "Simply that it lets us buy."
The Foreign Ministry said it has twice turned down an American government offer to send a disaster assessment team, insisting that Cuban experts are capable of assessing Ike's damage to the island. Cuba says it wants some American trade restrictions lifted instead, so it can buy American roofing and other construction materials to repair homes and the island's electrical grid. It also wants to buy food on credit.
Actually, I am in favor of this. Let Cuba buy American goods and materials. First, it helps the U.S. economy, it improves the U.S. trade deficit and it shows the Cuban people how good our materials are here in the U.S. Look, if we don't let them buy from us, they will get them from [T]Hugo Chavez for free. This is a win-win situation -- American business get to sell goods and we may preempt Chavez from digging his claws into Cuba further.
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