There's a couple problems with trying to integrate into the world trade at the moment, besides the lifeline sweetheart deals with Iran and Venezuela that Cuba has already long used.
One of them is the crushing and illegal blockade from the US, which contracts and expands periodically in order to not only prohibit some goods and deals from being made with Cuba, but introduce uncertainty in how long any deal will be legal, putting a chilling effect on any possible deal, even if it's legal.
The second is that world capital is ideological. What I mean is that labor and goods are literally valuated based on the political ideology of the nation they come from. Remember when Argentina elected a Perónist president recently? When Fernández even just won the primary, the entire economy of the country was immediately re-evaluated 30% down . No policy changed, no politician even changed, and it wasn't futures or stocks, but the currency itself that took a 33% nosedive on the prospects of a left populist getting elected there. This, IMO, is the more chilling problem for any use of world trade by a socialist project. Neo-liberalism means that, globally, your products will be struck with an "ideology tax" and it will be even more uphill the entire way.
There's a couple problems with trying to integrate into the world trade at the moment, besides the lifeline sweetheart deals with Iran and Venezuela that Cuba has already long used.
One of them is the crushing and illegal blockade from the US, which contracts and expands periodically in order to not only prohibit some goods and deals from being made with Cuba, but introduce uncertainty in how long any deal will be legal, putting a chilling effect on any possible deal, even if it's legal.
The second is that world capital is ideological. What I mean is that labor and goods are literally valuated based on the political ideology of the nation they come from. Remember when Argentina elected a Perónist president recently? When Fernández even just won the primary, the entire economy of the country was immediately re-evaluated 30% down . No policy changed, no politician even changed, and it wasn't futures or stocks, but the currency itself that took a 33% nosedive on the prospects of a left populist getting elected there. This, IMO, is the more chilling problem for any use of world trade by a socialist project. Neo-liberalism means that, globally, your products will be struck with an "ideology tax" and it will be even more uphill the entire way.