By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Cuba's top trade official dismissed reports that companies linked to US President Donald Trump had come to Cuba this year to talk business, while calling the US trade embargo the biggest impediment to the roll-out of historic free-market reforms.
Cuban foreign trade and deputy prime minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga said neither he nor any other Cuban official had met with representatives from Trump-tied businesses.
"I have no knowledge of any company directly linked to President Trump having made contact with Cuba," Perez-Oliva told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview in his ninth-story Havana office, fronting the Straits of Florida.
Under increased pressure from the Trump administration, including renewed sanctions that have hit its economy hard, Cuba in June unveiled unprecedented free-market reforms that, if fully implemented, would represent the biggest change to the island's socialist economy since former president Fidel Castro took control in 1959.
But, said Perez-Oliva, to make further progress, Washington must ease up on the sanctions, which include an oil blockade imposed in January that all but eliminated imports from Mexico, Venezuela and other former top fuel suppliers.
"It is not our policy to prohibit US companies from investing in Cuba, trading with Cuba, or conducting business of any kind with Cuba," Perez-Oliva said. "What prevents this possibility is the existence of the trade embargo."
Washington says the island's reforms do not go far enough and has called for "free and fair" elections.
Trump associates have been linked with potential business opportunities in Cuba over the years. In 2016, Trump's business associates visited Cuba and met with top tourism officials to discuss opportunities, according to minutes viewed by Reuters of those meetings.
PLAYING FAVORITES
Trump administration policies have skewed some sectors of Cuba's economy in favor of US investors, Perez-Oliva told Reuters.
"On the one hand, international companies — Cuba's traditional partners worldwide — are being threatened and urged to halt economic and commercial relations with our country," he said. "On the other, efforts are being made to boost the activities of US companies."
He pointed to a US State department policy that has allowed US companies to export fuel to the Cuban private sector, which he criticized as an effort to attempt to return Cuba to colonial-era dependence on the United States.
"(The policy) is aimed at forcing Cuba's economic dependence," said Perez-Oliva, whose maternal grandmother, Angela Castro, was an elder sister of former Cuban president Fidel Castro. "We will never again be a colony of any country."
Cuba's government has shown little sign of crumbling, despite severe economic hardship and Trump's repeated promises it would soon collapse.
WHAT'S NEXT
The stalemate has left investors of all nationalities in the lurch, Perez-Oliva said.
Canada's Sherritt International suspended direct participation in a nickel and cobalt mining joint venture with the Cuban government following a Trump administration executive order in May that threatened sanctions on mining-related businesses in Cuba.
Australia's Antilles Gold, which holds a copper and gold mine in Cuba, is also considering its next move, the minister said.
US investors have shown interest in both companies but have yet to receive permits exempting them from US sanctions, according to media reports.
"Neither Antilles Gold nor Sherritt has withdrawn (from Cuba)," Perez-Oliva said. "In light of these sanctions, these companies are evaluating alternatives to determine how to continue their operations."
Neither Antilles Gold nor Sherritt immediately responded to requests for comment.
Perez-Oliva said he would keep working to improve Cuba's economy and attract foreign investment.
The 55-year-old dismissed persistent rumors that he was being groomed as Cuba's next president.
"I have no aspirations in that regard," Perez-Oliva said. "I am simply a public servant, and I will work wherever I am needed, without aspiring to any particular position."
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, additional reporting by Ayose Naranjo, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
