14ymedio, Havana, 12 May 2016 — US machinery maker Caterpillar is ready to enter the Cuban market once the embargo is lifted, confirmed Caterpillar director Doug Oberhelman on Wednesday, after a meeting in Havana with the island’s authorities.
The management of the company, headquartered in Illinois, told Reuters that it was “received warmly” by the representatives of the Cuban government during their two-day stay in the country. The executive traveled to Havana for the first time to participate in an event organized on the occasion of a half million dollar donation from the company for the conservation and preservation of documents and artifacts from the former home of American writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba.
“We have talked about different projects,” he told reporters, “and I think the most interesting in the short term is at the Port of Mariel.”
To the question of when he expected the embargo to be lifted, Oberhelman said, “For me, the answer is not soon enough.”
This last February, Caterpillar named the Puerto Rican company Rimco as distributor of its products in Cuba in anticipation of the lifting of the trade embargo against the island.
In June, representatives of the group, along with employees of other major US companies like Cargill and Procter & Gamble, supported lobbying efforts in Congress by the organization Engage Cuba to lift restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba, supporting by Democratic and Republican advisors.
