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US governor visits Cuba to boost trade, tourism

The Governor of the US State of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, held talks with the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and the executives of several food importers on June 7 during his two-day visit to the Caribbean island nation.
The Governor of the US State of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, held talks withthe Cuban Chamber of Commerce and the executives of several foodimporters on June 7 during his two-day visit to the Caribbean islandnation.

Perdue was leading a 43-strongdelegation, including senators, executives from the maritime and foodindustries and academics from the University of Georgia .

Their spokesman, Bert Brantley, said that meeting with theCuban State agencies aimed to establish relations between Georgiaand Cuba as well as to scrutinise the business climate in Cuba .

The US Government has imposed an economic embargo uponCuba for almost half a century. However since 2000, Washington hasgiven the green light for US food and drug exporters to sell to Cuba .Since then, the US has been the largest supplier of food andfoodstuffs to Cuba , recording an export turnover of 729 million USDin 2009.

The US Department of Commerce rankedGeorgia as the third highest exporter to Cuba out of all the US states,earning 16.3 million USD from chicken, pork, soybeans, canned food andbutter, so far this year.

The Cuban NationalStatistics Office reported that the number of US arrivals to the islandincreased by 25 percent to 52,450 in 2009./.
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