Over the past six to 12 months, the previously frosty relationship between the United States and Cuba has begun to thaw, with leaders from each government collaborating more closely now. Businesses in the U.S. are thus now looking to firmly enter the Cuban market. To make sure all of their paperwork is in order, companies aiming to do more business in Cuba may want to arm themselves with a fax over IP (FoIP) solution to ensure proper communication with new ports and officials.
Starting in December 2014, when U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved to fully restore diplomatic ties between the two nations, relations between the U.S. and Cuba have improved dramatically ever since, according to the Council of Foreign Relations. Once strictly forbidden in the island, U.S. businesses are now starting to open up shop in Cuba. Among the companies rushing to go there are room rental portal Airbnb, trip provider Apple Vacations, cruise ship line Carnival and JetBlue Airlines, Forbes reported.
"The President's recent moves to restore diplomatic ties, reopen embassies and loosen rules for U.S. travel to Cuba — combined with America's pent-up curiosity — are prompting travel companies to jump-start connections even before the embargo is lifted: including new tours, new flights, new accommodations and the first American cruise to Cuba in 50 years," Forbes contributor Lea Lane wrote.
"$300 million worth of food was shipped to Cuba from the U.S. in 2014."
Leisure groups are not the only ones in the U.S. aiming to enter the Cuban market, as many shipping and logistics firms will also likely be looking to start doing business with Cuban entities in the near future. A lot of food, oil and machinery is sent to the country every year – about 96 percent of all imports to Cuba are goods, according to numbers from the Pew Research Center – which means that the island nation may represent a huge untapped market for U.S.-based shipping and logistics firms. Approximately $300 million worth of food was shipped to Cuba from the U.S. in 2014, and the value of total exports to the nation is likely to rise even further in the coming months and years.
"Plenty of American companies are no doubt keen to enter a new market," Quartz contributor Mike Murphy wrote last year.
The role of faxing in facilitating U.S.-Cuba Business
For U.S. companies looking to do business in Cuba now, there are still a number of obstacles yet to overcome. In particular, the processes and technology used by Cuban organizations and firms is likely far different than what many U.S.-based businesses are accustomed to today. For example, according to the CIA World Factbook, of the over 11 million people living in Cuba today, only about 1.6 million of them have access to the Internet. In addition, approximately 1.68 million Cubans had a mobile phone in 2012. Instead of the Web, many Cubans rely on flash drives full of pirated files to send and receive content that would be accessed online in the U.S., FastCompany reported.
One technology that is a bit more prevalent in Cuba, especially in government circles, is the fax machine. For example, in his book "Cuba the Trip Back: An Exile's Journey Through Today's Cuba," author and journalist Rafael Lima noted that he needed to use a fax machine to complete his visa application to go to the country. Likely, U.S. businesses will have a similar experience when initially trying to set up shop in Cuba.
Faxing and FoIP can potentially go a long way toward facilitating trade between the U.S. and Cuba.Why FoIP is so ideal
Instead of going out and buying a fax machine in order to communicate with and send information to Cuban officials, companies in the U.S. looking to expand to Cuba should embrace FoIP. With a cloud-based fax solution, firms can still send and receive fax missives, just from their email. FoIP is easy to both implement and use, and Internet faxing is just as reliable and secure as legacy faxing with a standalone machine. This technology can go a long way toward ensuring that U.S. organizations can easily communicate with their shipping partners in Cuba or anywhere else in the world.
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