this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Whoa! Thanks for the info, that's really cool

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Do you think medical tourism would become big?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

Florida has already gone pretty Republican, so I don't imagine that changing.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You don't think trade with the world's biggest economy and closest physical neighbor would have much of anmeffect?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Right.

That said, Cuba doesn't really have import restriction, it's the US has export restrictions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

yeah effectively the same if its in context of just the two countries i guess. Regardless, Cuba has a lot to gain on being able to trade for cheap produce made in the U.S, and at least, have another large country to compete for sales outside of Brazil (whose fast tracked into being virtually the largest agrarian society these days)

the end result is basically Cuban Tourism goes up, U.S exports to Cuba drives food prices down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The food prices falling might actually result in a net negative impact on their economy.
If local producers can't viably compete with aggressively low priced American crops, they'll lose out heavily.

On the whole, the tourism will probably bring in a lot of money, but a good chunk of it would leave the island immediately, and they'd have to wrangle a flood of goods they didn't have to compete with before.
(A lot of Caribbean islands end up in situations where the major tourist hubs are owned by American companies that pay locals as little as possible and then ship the profits back to the US. So the island just sees the benefit of 40 jobs, not 200 high paying tourists a month)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

the type of crops cuba grows arent the main exports that the U.S typically goes through. iirc theyre big on sugarcane and rice, neither of which are major US exports reletive to the global scale of exports.

at worst, the citrus market in cuba crumbles, but thats less significant than the above two.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

We actually export a huge amount of rice. https://fas.usda.gov/data/commodities/rice (3 million tons exported, to Cuba's 200k total production). We're actually the fifth largest exporter.
We also produce more sugar cane, but Brazil is the real power player there.

Cuba wouldn't be alone in being injured by US agricultural exports. Our volume and low cost can, for example, make people prefer imported American grains over domestic production, even if they're different types.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Not exactly.

Any ship that docks in Cuba is barred entry to US ports in the next 180 days.

The US can also sanction foriegn companies that trade with Cuba.

It's not a blockade but it has a chilling effect on trade.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Mass immigration into Cuba?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

probably, just look at how many people are retiring to Vietnam.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

A lot more tourism to Cuba from the US.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

The US would start importing Havana Club

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Vietnam was embargoed until the 90s, and dropping it basically allowed the soft power of the US to do it's thing. 'Nam isn't really an ally of the US, they consider themselves neutral, but they're undeniably very friendly. I suspect that a generation of trade and tourism could do the same to our relationship with Cuba and might result in softening attitudes among Cuban-Americans as they reestablish contact with their families and reconcile lingering animosity from the revolution.

I think this would also work for the DPRK, Iran, and others. Trade is really nice and children are rarely willing to carry the grudges of their parents.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mass medical tourism and the collapse of the corporativist medical industry in the US.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Who do you think will build resort hotels?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Some have mentioned medical tourism. Could an industry grow around that? Would American insurance programs start covering work done in Cuba?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

For the US, the change would be minimal.

If you ignore the fact that it'd probably be cheaper to fly to Cuba to receive medical treatment than to pay for a hospital in the US, sure.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It would improve living standards and mortality rates for Cuban citizens.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

100% TAS Key West - Varadero swimming speedrun NO COSMIC RAYS

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I would also expect American pork to be big in Cuba as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Massive inequality growth in Cuba

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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

So, I doubt it would ever happen.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Even during the ‘open’ Obama years, tourism for Americans was severely limited by the lack of banking interchange between US banks and Cuban ATMs and credit card networks. You have to bring cash and use a currency exchange, and if you run out you have no way of getting more money from your American bank. Other countries’ networks don’t have this issue, but it would need to be fixed for Americans to visit and spend money.

I’m glad the internal currencies of CUC vs CUP have been resolved, though a massive influx of tourist dollars would strain the existing economic systems of Cubans being paid for jobs other than tourism.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I'm thinking about a holiday there - friends who've been really enjoyed it. The beaches, the food, the music. https://www.onthebeach.co.uk/destinations/caribbean/cuba

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