Jorge M. Perez Quotes

The administration's attempt to keep us from selling agricultural products to Cuba is an outrage. Cuba is not a threat. That is why we must do more to open Cuba - not less.

Unilateral sanctions on Cuba have been oppressive and largely ineffective, and that's why the public largely supports lifting them.

I think our Cuban policy is insane…. I guess it’s the politics of Florida. The Cold War is long since over. Our embargo just lets Castro blame his troubles on us.. Just lift the embargo and let people do as they wish.

The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba is almost completely ineffective, as many other countries, including the European Union, do not honor it.

[Barack Obama] is aware of the criticism back home [from Cuba] that this embargo still exists.

I realized that I had traveled to Havana during what now seems like the childhood of the Cuban Revolution, if you think that Fidel has now been in power for 44 extremely long years. I started looking at the revolution as history, and not as part of the daily news.

What's certain is that a totalitarian enclave like Cuba's can't continue to exist, so change will definitely come there, eventually.

How can you have free trade when you don't even have a free government?

Doing business with Cuba is good for America.

Sending $300 to your grandma in Cuba doesn't change the dynamic with Castro.

The Obama administration benefited the Castro regime. The Trump administration plans to benefit the Cuban people by taking away power from the government and directly emboldening citizens.

I've never been against doing business with Cuba.

For some reason, we can't go to Cuba, businesses in American can't do business in Cuba. I think that that is stupid. So I hope very much and applaud the president for his efforts in that direction and hope that in the not-too-distant future, that if I have anything to say about it as president, we will work aggressively to develop normal relations in every respect with the people of Cuba.

In terms of the nature of the continuation of the Cold War, which has gone on so long between Cuba and the United States, I applaud the president for aggressively trying to end it and I hope we will have not only full diplomatic relations, but that the trade embargo will end.

Commerce is a powerful, underestimated form of expression. We use it to cast a vote with every product we buy. It's a direct expression of democracy. This is why our mission at Shopify is to protect that form of expression and make it better for everyone, not just for those we agree with.

We all know that China is not a free trader. That's the reality.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana may be reopened, but outside its gates, an open society with more freedom for its people is still absent.

The vast majority of immigrants - regardless of the conditions of war and poverty that may wrack their home countries - come and contribute to their new home country: building our roads, caring for our homes, children, and elders, and serving as doctors, lawyers, employers, and innovators.

I cannot imagine our country not having the right to economic boycott.

The world's longest-serving dictator has just stepped down and handed over power. The national project of Cuba, which was Fidel's vision, is now finished. It's something - a small something, but still something.

For more than fifty years, our policy towards Cuba was not making life better for Cubans. In many ways, it was making it worse.

Faith leaders, young people, American companies, human rights advocates, and many others have demonstrated a unique interest in our Cuba policy. But no community cares more deeply about these issues than Cuban Americans - young and old - who have maintained a profound interest in Cuba and an abiding faith in the Cuban people.

We can do a much better job free of protectionist Europeans.

Look what we did with Cuba. You isolate a country, and all you do is impoverish that country.

While President Obama raised the hopes of Americans and Cubans alike with a forward-looking opening in diplomatic, commercial and people-to-people ties, President Trump is turning back the clock to a tragically failed Cold War mindset by reimposing restrictions on those activities.