U.S. Secretary of Commerce is on an official visit to Cuba

Pritzker met with the country’s ministers of foreign affairs and foreign investment and toured Mariel, the site of a $1 billion investment to create what Cuban officials hope will become a major shipping hub in the Caribbean.

“The president wants to see the embargo lifted, but the president realizes it will take time”, she said, alluding to the fact that many Republican lawmakers and a few Democrats oppose lifting the embargo at this stage.

In September, the U.S. presidential administration announced relaxed regulations with Cuba, making it easier for USA citizens to travel to Cuba and conduct business in the island nation.

In Cuba’s Soviet-style economy, Castro has permitted much of agriculture to leave state control and form cooperatives while allowing small private businesses to thrive. Cuba has yet to allow foreign technology companies to wire the island, leaving it with the worst Internet access in the Americas.

Obama and Castro shocked the world with their December 2014 announcement that the two former adversaries would end more than half a century of hostility and restore diplomatic relations.

Pritzker, a hotel heiress who was instrumental in helping her family expand their Hyatt empire, will be discussing recent measures approved by the U.S.to loosen strictures of an embargo, which has been in place since 1960.

When Secretary of State John Kerry came in August to open the USA embassy, he was the first cabinet level official to visit since Fidel Castro’s rebels took power in a 1959 revolution.

But the warming of relations between the two countries, Pritzker said, indicated more US economic activity in the off-limits island could soon be a reality. On Wednesday, Pritzker is scheduled to chair a meeting between her delegations and representatives of various Cuban ministries and companies, to address the scope and limitations of the measures adopted by US President Barack Obama since January this year to ease certain restrictions against Cuba.