Cuba

Political relations

Throughout their common history, France and Cuba have forged ties of friendship and cooperation, which have strengthened since 2012 by political meetings at the highest level. The visit to Cuba of President François Hollande in May 2015 and the visit to Paris of President Raul Castro in February 2016 were historic, as no French or Cuban President had made such an official visit before that time.

These visits helped to create new momentum in our bilateral relations. Both countries built on this momentum by restructuring Cuban debt, signing a joint economic roadmap targeting a certain number of priority sectors (tourism, energy, infrastructure, health, transport and agrifood industry), opening an Agence Française de Développement office in Cuba and developing ambitious academic and scientific cooperation projects.

Economic relations

Cuba is the leading economy in the Caribbean (nominal official GDP of 77 billion in 2013, probably overestimated by around 10%), with a respectable level of development given the American embargo which limits its access to financing. Cuba remains dependant on its trade surplus based on several key sectors (healthcare, biotechnologies, tourism, mining), and migrant remittances. Cuba has significant need for foreign currency and struggles to meet demand. Economic growth has stalled significantly since 2013. With very low investment levels (8-10% of GDP for a need in the order of 25%), the government has been forced to speed up the implementation of sensitive structural reforms to establish credibility on the international level and restore its attractiveness including monetary unification, law on foreign investments and the creation of the Mariel Special Development Zone.

France’s bilateral trade with Cuba remains limited, even though it rebounded in 2017 following a 10% drop in 2016. In 2017, the trade balance grew 33% on 2016 increasing from €155.9 million to €208.3 million with a significant improvement in France’s bilateral trade surplus which reached €138.8 million vs €101.6 million over the same period of the previous year, an increase of 36.6%. 
Financial instruments to support France’s action in Cuba play a key role in supporting the development of this bilateral trade, be they Counterpart Funds (conversion of Cuban debts into development projects for €212 million), re-opening credit insurance or the involvement of the AFD. The French banking sector continues to refuse to operate in Cuba due to fears surrounding the overseas application of the US embargo.