With business relations between Cuba and the U.S. improving after decades, Cuba’s signature Havana Club rum is one potential export, but there’s a catch. Bacardi holds the Havana Club trademark in the U.S. CCTV America’s Michael Voss filed this report from Havana.

Highlights:

• Cuba’s Havana Club rum is one of the island’s major exports. It’s a joint venture between a state owned Cuban rum company and a French multinational: Pernod Ricard.
• According to the company, Havana Club is the world’s number three rum brand with annual sales of 4 million cases a year.
• Before the Cuban revolution, Bacardi was the island’s major rum maker, but its business was expropriated and the family left after Fidel Castro came to power.
• The legal battles continue, but the Cuban connection to the company has now registered another name in the United States. Havana Club will sell as Havanista rum once the trade embargo between the US and Cuba is lifted.

Economist Maricruz MaGowan discusses Havana Rum controversy 

CCTV America interviewed Vice President of the National Economists Club, Maricruz MaGowan, on pending intellectual property issues between Havana Club Rum and Puerto Rico based Bacardi Rum.