6-09-05, 11:15am

The elimination of the economic, commercial and financial US blockade on Cuba could generate 100 thousand workplaces and additional earnings for six billion dollars in the United States, says a study revealed here.

According to Semoon Chang, director of the Business and Research Center of the South Alabama University, suppression of trade restrictions on the island only in that territory would add 1,700 jobs for American citizens. Most of the employment would go to agriculture, although the auto industry and tourism would also benefit from it.

The study carried out based on statistics of the US Department of Commerce and the balance of US exports to Central America and the Caribbean, evidenced that Florida would be most benefit from the elimination of the blockade.

'Many businesspersons feel they have been harmed by the prohibition of selling products to Cuba', assured Chang, who will be one of the participants of the National Summit on Cuba, summit meeting to be held next Friday and Saturday in Mobile, Alabama, to insist on the need to abolish the economic war against the island.

The meeting will gather about 300 North Americans under the sponsorship of the Institute of World Policy of the New School University of New York.

Delegates will be welcomed by Mobile Mayor, Mike Downh, one of the promoters of the elimination of Washington trade restrictions against the Caribbean island.

Last April more than 30 important companies, state agencies and business groups announced the creation of a coalition in the US to counter the blockade against Cuba.

The organization named US-Cuba Trade Association (USCTA) committed itself to revitalize trade relations and achieve the lifting of travel restrictions to the island, imposed by Washington more than 40 years ago.

USCTA pretends to confront a recent ruling by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department, which compels Cuba to pay, in cash and in advance, any product imported from the United States.

The limited trade operations began since the approval in the year 2000 of the Law of Reform of Trade Sanctions and Export Improvement.

This legislation opened a small window to trade relations but surrounded by obstacles, as items and raw materials can only be moved by US ships, it is a one-way trade relation and payments must be made in cash, among other restrictions.

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