Enthusiasts of cigars, rum, Caribbean travel and many MLB managers welcomed with joy the lifting of the 55 year embargo by the U.S. government and the restoration of normal relations with Cuba. However, the manufacturing industry, including the plastics industry, is still unable to celebrate with the authentic "Havana Club" rum from Cuba.
There are still many obstacles to overcome if you want to do business with or to Cuba.
The White House's announcement was surprising, even to those who closely followed U.S. foreign policy.
Michael Taylor, senior director of international affairs and trade of the American Plastics Industry Association, said: "no one I know has planned to enter the Cuban market. Now it's time to get ready."
"It's too early to be happy," he said. We have not yet felt the purchasing power of ordinary Cubans. Maybe this is not a huge market“
Any area of the plastics industry must start from scratch and establish a business case for entering an unfamiliar market that no American enterprise knows much about. Taylor said that material suppliers are unlikely to try to enter Cuba and build local production capacity, although the attraction of the new market may interest processing enterprises, provided there is a business case and the United States Congress allows it.
The helms Burton Act promulgated in 1996 and five other existing laws strictly restrict any commercial exchanges of non humanitarian assistance between the United States and Cuba. U.S. political circles are still hostile to Cuban President Raul Castro and his brother, Cuban Revolutionary leader and long-term leader Fidel Castro, especially among Cuban Americans of the Republican Party, which will control both houses of Congress in 2015.
Moreover, although the United States has cut off trade with Cuba, it does not mean that other countries in the world do not have contact with the Castro government. Cuba joined the WTO as early as 1995. Cuba has formed its own plastics industry, although the United States market is not aware of it.
In January 2014, groupo odebrecht of Brazil signed a contract to build a plastic processing base in Cuba. The global infrastructure and construction giant is also building a new container terminal costing us $957 million.
Last April, the Cuban government announced that it would promote a US $1.4 billion natural gas regasification project and a US $1.2 billion urea and ammonia production plant. The joint venture of the project is petrolos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). According to a press release issued by PDVSA at that time, although the construction time has not been determined, it is expected to produce 400000 tons of urea and 370000 tons of ammonia per year, which means that it will benefit Cuba's plastics, agriculture and chemical industries. The Venezuelan company will also export its excess capacity to other Caribbean and Central American countries.
What may be helpful and influential to the plastics industry is Cuba's recycling industry. Despite the mediocre performance of the Cuban government in environmental protection, tourism is already a large-scale government controlled business in Cuba. The removal of plastics from beaches and waterways through recycling and cleaning programmes is expected to establish credibility and ties between industry and industry groups, even individuals, in the United States and Cuba.
Taylor said, "if Cuban society is more open, it will be the object of our consideration. We are happy to have Cuba sign up for the rapid removal of marine debris
The performance and output value of personalized and humanized plastic packaging have been improved. If the practical skills of plastic packaging can be applied to the plastic industry, the plastic industry will stand on the cusp of the storm, forge ahead and never shrink back.