Gov. Andrew Cuomo is back in New York after leading a two-day trade mission trip to Cuba.
Cuomo toured a key Cuban port and met with a Cuban vice president, and afterward remarked that some of the tentative trade deals struck during the trip could help end the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba.
Cuomo arrived in Havana Monday and traveled to the Hotel Nacional, where he met with Josefina Vidal, Cuba's top negotiator in meetings over re-establishing diplomatic ties.
Even though Congress has not voted to lift trade restrictions with the communist-governed country yet, state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), who was also on the trip, says two agreements are already in the works. "One that would help cancer patients here in New York State because of research that has been done in Cuba, and the other which would help the medical professionals in Cuba with software that we have perfected here," says Cousins.
The trip for Cuomo was the first in a series of foreign trips planned to promote commercial ties with New York. Trade missions are already planned this year to Canada, China, Mexico, Israel and Italy. AP wires were used in this report