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Washington has just greenlighted the first U.S. factory to be implemented in the island, although the more than 50-year blockade is still not formally lifted, reported El Pais Monday.
By the beginning of 2017, the plant will be assembling about 1,000 small tractors that will be then sold exclusively to Cuban private farmers, a project that the Cuban government has also publicly approved.
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Horace Clemmons, one of the company's two partners, welcomed the decision of the U.S. Treasury Department, saying “Everybody wants to go to Cuba to sell something and that's not what we're trying to do. We're looking at how we help Cuba solve the problems which they consider the most important.”
“It's our belief that in the long run we both win if we do things that are beneficial to both countries,” he added.
Cuba and the United States started to restore diplomatic relationship in December 2014, although negotiations are still far from reaching an agreement on the full end of the economic blockade imposed by the U.S. administration for more than five decades.
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