Retail establishments in Cuba are important outlets for products manufactured in the United States. Shown here is a display of pharmaceuticals which Cuba buys from manufacturers in many parts of this country. Chapter Ten United States Trade with Cuba United States Exports to Cuba Cuba is one of the best cusCuba-Cuba tomers of the United States. As Table 24 shows, in recent years about four-fifths of all Cuba's visible imports have been bought from this country. During the 25-year period, 1927 to 1951 inclusive, these purchases totaled about $4,235,000,000. Approximately 42 per cent of the value of all purchases of United States goods by Cuba in 1927-1951 consisted of machinery and vehicles, cotton and synthetic textiles, rice, wheat flour and lard. The remaining 58 per cent was divided among a wide variety of products, including fruits and vegetables, evaporated milk, leather and leather products, rubber, wood and paper, petroleum products, glass, iron and steel prod ucts other than machinery and vehicles, chemicals and chemical products. Detailed figures are given in Tables 25 and 26. United States exports to Cuba in 1951 were valued at $540,000,000, the largest on record and more than seven times the average in the pre-World War II period, 1935-1939. Only five countries in the world, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil and Japan took a larger volume of United States merchandise in 1951 than did Cuba. All these countries have much larger populations than has Cuba. Cuba Important Market for Nearly Every Region in United States-Virtually every region in the United States has an important economic interest in the production and export of one or more products sold to Cuba in significant quantities, as shown in Chart XXIV. The Cuban market is vital to the continued prosperity of rice growers and processors in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and California, the five states producing almost the entire United States rice crop. This country's rice exports in 1951 amounted to about one-third of total production that year. Shipments were nearly four times the annual average for 1936-1940. The total value of rice exports to Cuba during 1927-1951 was about $428,000,000. Rice exports to Cuba in 1937-1951 accounted for more than 60 per cent of the total leaving this country. In 1950 exports of rice to Cuba amounted to 677,000,000 pounds, second only to the all-time peak of 737,000,000 pounds reached in 1947, when they amounted to about onethird of the entire United States rice crop. In 1951, Cubans purchased 556,000,000 pounds of United States rice. |