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Governmental relations with Cuba have traditionally been correct but not warm; this has improved with the establishment of diplomatic representation. Previously, contacts with Cuba had mainly taken place at the UN. For instance, Hon Phil Goff met Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez in New York in September 2000. Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and Cuba were established after a similar meeting between Don McKinnon and his Cuban counterpart in 1998. New Zealand has voted in favour of UN resolutions calling for an end to the US economic embargo, and this support has been recognised by Cuba. Early in 2001 a New Zealand parliamentary delegation led by Hon Doug Kidd visited Cuba for an IPU conference, and met President Castro at a social function. In January 2002 Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hon Phil Goff, undertook a bilateral visit to Cuba. In 2004, Mr Goff met with his counterpart, Felipe Perez Roque, at the FEALAC Ministerial Meeting in Manila (January) and at the United Nations General Assembly (September). There has been no high-level visit from Cuba to New Zealand since a Vice Foreign Minister visited in 1985.
The Cuban Ambassador to New Zealand is resident in Jakarta. The New Zealand Ambassador to Cuba is resident in Mexico City.
New Zealand’s most substantial link with Cuba is the dairy trade. This is of long standing (at least 15 years), although volumes can vary greatly from year to year. The trade is driven by the Cuban Government’s policy of providing each Cuban child under 4 with a litre of liquid milk every day.
In the year to December 2006 the diary trade was worth NZ$66.5 million. Trade is done mainly via ALIMPORT, the government agency responsible for importing foreign food for use in the domestic market, or via Cubalse, the government agency that sells to special hotels and restaurants that cater mainly to tourists. Fonterra’s involvement in Cuba has been an important catalyst for establishing formal New Zealand government links via representation from Mexico. Cuba is also investigating the potential for meat imports from NZ and is interested in selling pharmaceuticals to NZ.
In February 2004, the Latin America Strategy Fund provided financial support for a New Zealand film festival in Havana as part of Si! Cubanz Filmz, a film festival exchange project organised by New Zealander Julie Webb-Pullman in conjunction with ICAIC (the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos – the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry). The New Zealand films screened (subtitled in Spanish) were The Price of Milk, Don’t Let it Get You, Sleeping Dogs, Utu, Ngati and Once were Warriors. The Latin America Strategy Fund supported the initiative through a contribution to the costs of subtitling.
Te Wananga o Aotearoa has built significant relationships in Cuba, especially in the literacy area and indigenous networks.
The NZ Women’s Basketball team, the Tall Ferns, visited Cuba in February 2005 for a series of games against the Cuban Women’s Basketball team in Havana, Cuba.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Cuba is an increasingly popular destination for New Zealanders.
Cuba is a member of the WTO as well as of the UN. top of page
Land Area - 110,860 sq kms
Population - 11.3 million (2006 estimate)
Capital City - Havana
Religion - Predominantly Roman Catholic and Protestant
Language - Spanish
Currency - Cuban Peso
Life Expectancy at Birth - 77 years (2001)
Political system - Communist State
National government - Centralised rule by the Cuban Communist Party Chairman, Fidel Castro
National legislature - National Assembly of 609 members
Last election - January 2003
Next election due - January 2008
Head of State - President Fidel Castro
Head of Government - Fidel Castro
GDP - US$ 37.3 billion
GDP breakdown - Goods 25 %; Services 56.7 %
Real GDP growth - 9.5%
Exports of goods fob - US$2.1 billion
Imports of goods fob - US$7.5 billion
Main exports
(using EIU 2004 statistics) - Nickel (US$1,129 million);
Tobacco Products (US$227 million);
Medicines (US$220 million);
Sugar (US$159 million)
Tourism - Gross Revenue US$2.34 billion in 2005
(with 2.3 million arrivals)
Current account - Surplus of US$296 million
Inflation - 7 % (consumer price average)
Total external debt - US$14.5 billion
NZ Exports (FOB) - NZ$72.7 million (year ended Dec 2006)
Main Exports - Milk and cream powders (91.4%);
Radio Equipment (4.7%);
Trailers and Semi-trailers (1.4%);
Batteries (0.5%)
NZ Imports (CIF) - NZ$1.3 million (year ended Dec 2006)
Main Imports - Cigars (75.2%);
Coffee (12.0%);
Spirits (6.7%);
Lobsters (4.1%)
Services Trade - Unrecordedtop of page
The Republic of Cuba is the largest island nation in the Caribbean. It lies south of the US state of Florida and north of Jamaica, and is comparable in size to the North Island of New Zealand. Cuba has a tropical climate. Rainfall is comparatively high, with a dry season from November to April.
A Communist state, Cuba has been under the personal rule of the Communist leader Fidel Castro since 1959. Despite ten years of economic hardship there do not appear to be any serious strains in the Cuban one-party system, or threats to Castro’s rule. Political freedoms are minimal and are likely to remain so for some time yet.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ending of Soviet subsidies to Cuba in the early 1990s, Cuba has been through a deep economic recession but is now recovering with help form Venezuela and tourist arrivals. The United States has applied an economic embargo against Cuba since 1962, and this continues, despite exports of US agricultural products to Cuba since 2001.
The arrests and harsh sentencing of dissidents in early 2003 both reflected and compounded the hostility between Cuba and the US, and seriously damaged relations with other western countries. Relations with the US remain antagonistic.
New Zealand established diplomatic representation with Cuba in 2001. The Cuban Embassy in Jakarta is cross-accredited to Wellington. The New Zealand Embassy in Mexico City is cross-accredited to Havana. Governmental relations have been conducted in a positive atmosphere though each has been critical of the other on human rights. There is considerable New Zealand trade in dairy products with Cuba. Over the past five years, it has been our third largest market for milk powder in Latin America.top of page
Cuba was one of the first Spanish colonies to be planted in the Americas, and one of the last to gain its independence. Independence came in 1902 as a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Democracy has not developed strong roots in Cuba. Fidel Castro’s successful revolt against the corrupt dictator Batista, which ended with Castro’s takeover on 1 January 1959, marked the start of a new era. Cuba was propelled onto the world stage as a focus of the Cold War and is the only communist state in the Americas. With the end of the Cold War, Cuba was adrift from its special trading relationship with the USSR, but no softening of the US policy of isolating Cuba has taken place apart from limited exemptions to allow US exports of agricultural and pharmaceutical goods to Cuba since 2001. There is a large and politically influential community of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Florida, though there are increasing indications that elements of the Cuban community in the US would like to see contacts freed up.
Cuba has been governed by the PCC since 1965; it is the only legal political party, and exercises de facto control over government policies. The president, Fidel Castro, who led the revolt that overthrew the US-backed government of General Batista in 1959, has been the head of the government since that year, when he was 33 years old. He was formally elected president (by the National Assembly) for the first time in 1976.
The political atmosphere in Cuba has been tense. Following international condemnation of the clampdown on dissidents in April 2003, and the imposition of the death penalty on three ferry highjackers in May, the Cuban Government cited a threat to national security. This environment has curtailed opportunity for domestic debate and political reform.
The temporary handover of power on 31 July 2006 from President Fidel Castro to his brother and deputy, Raul Castro (for health reasons) did not give rise to any major upheavals. Although Fidel Castro has made some recovery, it remains uncertain whether he will return to office.top of page
GDP is estimated to have grown 9.5% during 2005. Major new trade agreements, investment commitments and credit lines form China and Venezuela provided a significant boost to the economy in 2005-06 and are expected to continue to do so in 2007-08. This, together with steady growth of the tourism, nickel and oil sectors, will allow GDP growth to rise to a higher trend of growth than that of the past decade, despite tighter enforcement of US sanctions and low sugar earnings. Higher-than-expected earnings form pharmaceutical licensing arrangements with India and China have lifted non-tourism service revenues.
It is estimated that around 73.2% of the workforce works in the State sector. In the non-state sector, the main types of employment are in agricultural co-operatives and smallholdings. The new categories of self-employment and family businesses legalised since 1993 only account for 3.5% of the working population. The scope for self-employment was further narrowed in 2004, when the list of authorised activities was reduced.
Social spending continues to be a high priority. The emphasis of the government on the universal protection of basic needs and healthcare has made Cuba’s health statistics comparable with those of industrialised nations. Some sources have been sceptical of official Cuban statistics.
A dual economy has developed with the two hugely divergent exchange rates (the “official” and “unofficial”), the coexistence of a range of sets of prices (some state controlled and some free-market) and the existence of two currencies (the national peso and the convertible peso). Since November 2004 tourists, foreign business visitors and Cubans with access to hard currency have been required to use the convertible peso. There are only limited goods available for purchase with the national peso.top of page
Cuba’s foreign policy continues to be dominated by its strained relationship with the United States. US trade sanctions have been in place since 1960. There have been no formal diplomatic relations since 1961, but the US and Cuban governments maintain an Interests Section in each other’s capitals. Cuba campaigns against the US trade embargo and is very critical of the US (NZ opposes the embargo). In the US, voices have been raised against Washington’s policy of isolating Cuba. For its part, Cuba is keen to extend its range of international contacts wherever it can.
Very few countries have followed the US policy of isolating Cuba. The Europeans, Canadians, and Australians, for instance, have normal dealings with Cuba, as does New Zealand. Nevertheless, as the number of communist countries in the world has dwindled and human rights have assumed greater importance in the international agenda, Cuba has lost many of its former supporters. Even Mexico, once a firm friend, criticises Cuba’s human rights record
The arrests and harsh sentencing of dissidents in early 2003 both reflected and compounded the hostility between Cuba and the US, and seriously damaged relations with other Western countries. The EU introduced a series of diplomatic sanctions. Although the EU said it remained committed to in principle to “constructive engagement”, the decision by EU diplomats to invite dissidents to official functions led to a sharp reduction in official contact with the Cuban government. This impasse was not broken until January 2005, when then EU agreed that dissidents would not longer be invited to official functions. In return, the Cuban government agreed that officials would restore contacts with the embassies.
Ties with Venezuela have deepened since the election of the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, in December 1998. As a result, Venezuela has become Cuba’s most important supplier of oil and Cuba has sent thousands of health and education workers to support Mr Chávez’s social programmes. Since 2003 relations with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay have all benefited from the election of leftist presidents. Relations with Mexico have become strained over recent years with vitriolic criticism of the Mexican Government by Fidel Castro. Cuba has also actively sought new commercial partners in Asia with China emerging as an important partner in recent years through extensive economic and military cooperation and new initiatives in tourism
Cuba hosted the 14th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana in September 2006. With the attendance of representatives of the governments of 118 countries (including 55 heads of state), the summit highlighted the fruits of Cuba’s active diplomacy in the developing world.top of page
The Safetravel website provides a travel advisory for travellers to Cuba [external link].
