If the American embargo of Cuba ended, what do you think would happen to the USA and Cuba?
This isn't meant to be a discussion on the morality of the embargo, but the affects of the embargo ending for both countries. These affects can be political, economic, or social.
It's a small economic quirk, but I imagine many Cubans would be selling their old American cars to collectors State-side for a quick cash influx.
And Americans would be eager to travel to Cuba for tropical tourism. That feels like a longer lasting economic change.
Of course there'd be a bubble market on Cuban cigars that would arise, climb, then settle as the demand declines as the idea of a Cuban cigar becomes more normalized.
I've heard Cuba has some novel treatments for lung cancer. I imagine there'd be a market for medical tourism that would emerge from that, as I sincerely doubt the FDA would evaluate and approve a foreign treatment created under a Communist government with any haste.
I was curious about that lung cancer treatment and found this Snopes article. Sounds like in Cuba it's demonstrated that it can add several months to some people's lives after they're diagnosed with lung cancer. Phase II clinical trials are underway in the US as of last year, and preliminary results show particular success in combination with other existing treatments. They've expanded the trial to cover some other forms of cancer too
I think that largely depends on how easy it becomes for Americans to travel to Cuba. I imagine there'd be a bubble for most economic exchanges in the get go, but after it would normalize more.
I'm not really sure what constitutes "big" or how large the medical tourism industry is, say, between Mexico and the US, but I know it exists.
I've heard that Cuban healthcare is very good, but I'm unsure how accessible it would be to Americans. Being an American, I really don't know much about Cuba... but I've heard a few general things.
A TON of political mudslinging in the US that would die down after a few news cycles and a great deal of improvement to Cuba’s economy due to the dropping of the embargoes due to increased trade and tourism from the U.S.
Substantially? Not much (other than improving Cuba’s economy). This isn’t the 1960s, and “Ooo! Scary Cooommmunism!” thing isn’t the political bulwark it once was. Aside from a bunch of old bags in congress full of pace makers and life-extending pharmaceuticals, the vast majority of Americans couldn’t give a shit.
As a not-Cuban person, I can’t opine on how they’d feel about it. If I were to guess, I’d imagine they’d be in favor of it, but I can’t be sure.
Same thing that would happen if sanctions on Afghanistan were lifted. Regular people's lives would improve as the country could import what they need. Cuba is really lacking in cement and medical supplies for example iirc (though their medical system and education is world-class), and they can't import them cuz of the embargo.
Obviously not much would change in the US, aside from some people realizing socialism isn't too bad when you're not a tiny country sanctioned and blockaded by the most war-mongering nation in the world.
The US economy is so gigantic compared to Cuba’s that I don’t see it changing much at all for the US—maybe some medical advancements. For Cuba it would mean being able to acquire goods at more reasonable rates and probably a much bigger tourist trade if they’re not careful. Edit and better internet, I hear that’s important.
They'd both suddenly benefit... the impact on America would be pretty minimal economically simply due to scale but it probably would improve health by moving us partially off corn syrup. And for Cuba it'd end decades of arbitrary economic kneecapping by the US. Tourism would probably explode since it'd be a shorter flight than cancun from the east coast and, y'know, not fucking Florida.
I don't think it would have any significant impact on corn syrup usage.
The US already produces about nine times more sugar cane than Cuba does. We also import it from countries like Brazil and the other Caribbean islands.
Our usage of corn syrup is because it's very cheap to begin with, and for various reasons it's desirable to keep food production, including corn, higher than demand would normally require.
That has one effect of further lowering the price of corn syrup.
The only thing that'll get us to cut back the amount of corn syrup in foods is the (slow) growing trend of consumers preferring foods that don't have added sugar, which would also preclude cane sugar.
Corn syrup is mainly cheap because of the huge subsidies, putting that money to better use supporting veggie or fruit production would make us all a lot healthier
realisticly, i dont think much outside of trade restrictions to cuba would help them. politically on the states side whichever party removes it loses a lot of Cuban voters who migrated to Florida who are in the camp of not liking Cuba. can potentially turn the state the other parties color goven how swingstatey Florida is on its own.
not saying trade wont have an effect, its just definitely on one side, it would be minimal, and Cuba for sure would benefit (heavily) from not having import restrictions. Relationships between the twp countries at least immediately, would not change.
I wonder how many poor retirees would consider it if the options are living in a modest apartment in Cuba surrounded by a great health care system versus shitting in a bucket in a van down by the river.
For the US, the change would be minimal. The economy of Cuba is so small by comparison and they don't have a heavy industry or tech sector to offer much to the US economy. Most outflows of money would likely be in tourism by US citizens to Cuba. And maybe some businesses would find ways to offshore some work. But again, I think the overall impact would be small.
As for Cuba, it really depends on the Cuban Government. Trade with the US and tourism are likely to have a much larger impact (as a percentage of GDP) on Cuba. The country could well see a sizeable influx of foreign cash. Managed well, this could create a lot of opportunity for the Cuban people. Managed by a corrupt regime, intent on enriching itself and it's friends, this could lead to the same type of misery which usually results from corrupt government.
I have no idea, but I'd be stocking up on cigars like a motherfuck. Trump putting the kibosh on bringing Cuban cigars back into the US still chaps my ass.
Just to shine light on something positive for the US, it could be a good thing for American rice growers as Cuba could possibly become large buyer of USA rice
Significant improvement in the quality of life of Cubans. Probably also increase US tourism to Cuba. Not sure if it would have any real impact on the average US citizen.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said on Friday that more than 100 Russian companies had started operations in Cuba over the past year, according to the state news agency TASS
What does Russia in 2024 have to do with the blockade? Cuba has been trying to peacefully trade with the US for 60 years - even when the USSR provided aid.
Besides nationalizing US businesses without compensation, Cuba got in pretty hot water during the Cold War for its hosting of Soviet Nukes. While I completely agree the embargo is pointless at this time, the increased presence of Russian influence could stir up some old feelings.