By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
Herald Staff Writer

A high-level delegation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest
business federation in the country, plans to make its first visit to Cuba this year.

The four-member delegation, led by Chamber President Tom Donohue, has
asked for a U.S. Treasury Department permit to make the trip, sources
familiar with the request told The Herald.

It would be the first such trip by the top authorities of the Chamber, a
Washington-based institution that represents three million companies in their
dealings with the U.S. and foreign governments. The Chamber has long
opposed unilateral U.S. sanctions on Cuba and several other countries.

Reached Friday at a weekend business conference in Key Largo, Donohue
confirmed that the group plans to make the trip ``in the next couple of weeks
or months.'' He said he hopes to get ``the approval of our government, and to
be welcomed by the Cuban government.''

``Our objectives would be to meet with Cuban leaders, people involved in
business, and to discuss what might be done in expanding trade in goods,
medicines and tourism.

``We believe that unilateral sanctions don't work, and that our government
should carefully consider removing the dozens of sanctions we have around the
world,'' Donohue said. ``They don't achieve our objectives and they are
detrimental to U.S. interests.''

Donohue would not elaborate, but a source familiar with the plans said the
delegation is likely to meet with President Fidel Castro and dissidents who are
considered ``socially acceptable'' to the Cuban government.

U.S. business representatives have stepped up pressure in recent years to end
the four-decade U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, arguing that European and
Canadian investors are setting up huge operations on the island in anticipation
of a post-Castro era, at the expense of U.S. firms.

Skeptics say the purported invasion of European and Canadian investors in
Cuba is an illusion. They cite figures from the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council showing that less than $1 billion of the $6.2 billion in foreign
investment announced since 1990 has actually arrived in Cuba.

Ambiguous government regulations, a paralyzing bureaucracy and a known
reluctance by Castro to further open the economy make Cuba a much riskier
investment than China or Vietnam, critics say.
 

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald