U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker to Join President Barack Obama in Cuba and Argentina

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will join President Barack Obama on his historic trip to Cuba and Argentina later this month. 

President’s Export Council Chair Ursula Burns, Chairman and CEO of Xerox, and Vice Chair Arne Sorenson, President and CEO of Marriott International will also travel to Cuba in order to gather facts on the ground about the economic and commercial opportunities and challenges in Cuba. 

This will be Secretary Pritzker's second trip to Cuba. In October, she traveled to Havana, becoming the second cabinet member to do so since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries. During that visit, Secretary Pritzker and Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Rodrigo Malmierca inaugurated the U.S.-Cuba Regulatory Dialogue, a mechanism intended to facilitate more effective implementation of new U.S. policies toward Cuba. The second meeting of the Regulatory Dialogue met in February 2016.   

This historic visit – the first by a sitting U.S. President in nearly 90 years – is another demonstration of the President’s commitment to chart a new course for U.S.-Cuban relations and connect U.S. and Cuban citizens through expanded travel, commerce, and access to information.

In Cuba, the President will work to build on the progress we have made toward normalization of relations with Cuba - advancing commercial and people-to-people ties that can improve the well-being of the Cuban people, and expressing our support for human rights. In addition to holding a bilateral meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro, President Obama will engage with members of civil society, entrepreneurs and Cubans from different walks of life. 

In Buenos Aires, the President and First Lady will meet with the new Argentine President, Mauricio Macri, to discuss President Macri’s reform agenda and recognize his contributions to the defense of human rights in the region.  The President will deepen efforts to increase cooperation between our governments in a range of areas, including trade and investment, renewable energy and climate change, and citizen security.  It has been nearly two decades since the last bilaterally focused visit by a U.S. President to Argentina, Latin America’s third largest country.