[NYTr] Cuba - China Trade up 23 percent in 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Intl Herald Tribune - Dec 31, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/31/business/CB-FIN-Cuba-China.php

Cuba-China trade increased 23 percent to more than US$2.2B in '07

The Associated Press

HAVANA: Trade between Cuba and China grew by 23 percent to more than
US$2 billion (€1.4 billion) in 2007, solidifying China's place as the
communist-run island's second-largest economic benefactor behind
oil-rich Venezuela.

China is Cuba's second-largest trading partner and the top importer of
Cuban products, especially nickel and sugar, Cuba's official news
agency Prensa Latina reported Monday from Beijing, without giving exact
figures.

In 2006, trade between the two countries totaled US$1.8 billion (€1.2
billion) — double that of 2005, China's ambassador to Havana said in
March.

Chinese consumer goods are increasingly common on the island, and
hundreds of Chinese-made buses and trains have helped ease chronic
transportation problems, especially on long-distance routes.

The Cuban government has also distributed new Chinese appliances on
credit to families, in an effort to reduce the amount of energy
consumed by the hulking, decades-old Russian-made refrigerators and
stoves once commonplace here.

Cuba-China trade figures also include billions of dollars (euros) in
favorable credits Beijing has extended Havana in recent years, which
has seen the island's debt levels soar.

Trade between Venezuela and Cuba has reached US$7 billion (€4.7
billion) a year, much of it in the form of the 92,000 barrels of oil a
day Venezuela provides the island for Cuban doctors providing medical
care and other social services.