Regardless of what side of the political aisle you may be on, it’s impossible to deny that Georgia’s leaders have been proactive in terms of bringing new business into the state. Governor Nathan Deal and company have been hard at work luring companies from Caterpillar to Mercedes into the state, and with the possibility of a General Electric relocation lingering, we haven’t seen the end of businesses heading South.
But using the state’s attractive business climate and booming sector of young, qualified workers is one thing. Establishing commercial relations with Marxist-Leninist states is quite another. Yet, that’s exactly what Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and others are in the process of doing, and it couldn’t be a better scenario for Georgia.
Images of Cuba from the past 30 years are of broken down buildings and 1960’s era American cars. Workers in straw hats rolling cigars and baseball games played under dim lights. It’s a nation trapped in a bizarre economic and social stasis, the result of being caught on the wrong side of the Cold War and receiving the silent treatment from the world’s most powerful neighbor, one that is less than 100 miles away. When diplomatic relations were re-established this summer, opportunities to be the first American industries to tie themselves to a nation in dire need of modernization arose, and Georgia may be a perfect partner.
Florida would seem to be the obvious choice to fill that role, with an already large and influential Cuban-American population and a series of barrier islands that stretch out to nearly swimming distance of the island nation. But that relationship is a tricky one, with many of those said Cuban-Americans resisting any formal relationship with a country that forced them and their relatives out, as well the fact that much of what Cuba has to offer economically falls into the same agricultural areas where Florida already excels. For the Sunshine State, Cuba is both a political and economic headache waiting to happen.
Enter Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who in June visited Cuba with a party of professors and other experts. Said Reed prior to the trip, “We don’t have the political drag that Florida has with all the interactions with Cuba. I’m going to Cuba to start getting to know the people and to send a clear message that we want to establish a relationship.”
Cuba has a long way to go before their economy can make a real impact in Georgia. Even if the embargo is lifted, (something that seems imminent at this point) the nation’s decades of relative isolation leave much work to be done, whether that be in terms of improving poor public transportation, outdated regulations, or just a general lack of capital to buy exported goods. But for Reed, being among the first to establish a relationship with Cuba may pay big dividends down the road. Research from the Congressional Research Service indicates that Cuba could take in nearly as much agricultural exports from the U.S. as the Dominican Republic down the road, a figure which comes in at just over $1 billion.
So whether it’s chicken or peanuts, Delta flights or Mercedes-Benz cars, anyone invested in Georgia’s economic health should be glad for the state’s leaders taking early steps to put their state in a position to make yet another stride forward.
