International business in the USA - Essay Example

Question The United s should not seek to tighten its economic grip on Cuba. This approach has been utilized for the past several decades and has utterly failed to accomplish its objective of pressuring the Castro regime to either open up politically or to collapse in favor of a more open government. Meanwhile, the people of Cuba have needlessly suffered; and the U.S. has failed to capitalize on a potentially lucrative market right in its own backyard while other countries have stepped in to fill the void.

When an approach to a problem fails to solve that problem for nearly half a century, it is simply unwise to take that same approach to an even greater extreme. The United States has had the most success effecting political change when it actively engages other countries regardless of their form of government. Such countries as Vietnam, China, and Russia all stand as solid examples of how effective a policy of open engagement can be. Question 2 The United States should normalize business relations with Cuba in order to promote political change in that country, as well as to provide a tremendous trade opportunity for American business that could constitute a substantial boon to the U.S. economy.

Normalizing business relations would allow Cubans to witness first hand the advantages of a market economy and open political system. As they freely interacted with Americans in the course of business, Cubans would gradually become aware of the harsh repression of the Castro regime and demand for political and economic change would percolate up over time. The U.S. should stipulate the same conditions for an open trade and business policy with Cuba that apply to any other repressive regime, including China.

These conditions might include an annual review of human rights violations, and the extent to which Cuba affords open access to American businesses. Question 3 From the perspective of the Castro regime, there might be little incentive to open up trade relations with the United States. After all these years, the American trade embargo against Cuba has had the effect of strengthening Castro's grip on power by providing a rallying point around which the Cuban people can offer him their support. Castro has been able to point to the "evil" Americans across the Florida straits and blame them for his country's poverty and relatively poor standard of living.

Opening up trade with America would deprive him of that crutch; and it would force him to have to take responsibility for any continuing economic problems his country faces, potentially threatening his grip on power. Because the status quo has enabled Castro to preserve his power, it is unlikely he would want to normalize trade relations with the U.S. even if the U.S. wanted to do so. Question 4 The structure and relationships of the American political system have a tremendous influence on the state of U.S. trade relations with Cuba.

There is a huge constituency of Cuban-Americans, particularly in the pivotal state of Florida, who support the current policy due to their resentment of Castro. Thus, it would be highly risky from a political standpoint for anyone to press for normalization of relations with Cuba. The Cuban exiles who fled that country in the wake of Castro's assumption of power, and subsequently became American citizens, constitute a tremendously powerful voting block, to the extent that a Presidential candidate who supported opening trade with Cuba would be virtually assured of losing Florida.

Because nobody would want to sacrifice Florida's large number of electoral votes based on this issue, candidates tend to always support the status quo. There is simply not enough public opposition to the current policy to make it change.