National summit to evaluate current U.S.-Cuba trade

The National Summit on Cuba, an educational forum in which U.S. leaders discuss the state of current U.S.-Cuba relations, will be held Oct. 8, 2004, at the University of Tampa's Plat Hall, in Tampa, Fla.

According to the promoters, the summit will provide a comprehensive national assessment of U.S. business' experiences with commercial relations with Cuba under the Trade Sanctions Reform Act approved by Congress in 2000. It will explore how this recent commercial relationship has impacted U.S. communities, particularly Gulf Coast communities, and Cuba. The summit also is intended to present a bipartisan, balanced assessment of how U.S.-Cuba policy impacts national interest.

Thirty speakers, including U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID); U.S. Representatives William Delahunt(D-MA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Butch Otter (R-ID); (Ret) General John Sheehan, former Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in charge of Guantanamo Bay during the last refugee crisis; Ambassador Peter Peterson, the first U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam and a former Florida Congressman; diplomats chambers of commerce, and port authority speakers, will be on hand. Speakers from the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards campaigns and the Florida U.S. Senate campaigns also are expected to discuss party distinctions on Cuba policy.

The summit is cosponsored by the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation; Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba; the Florida-Cuba Business Council; and the World Policy Institute at New School University.