Havana, January 14 (RHC)-- Cuban President Raul Castro met Friday in Havana with Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who is on a visit here.

Donohue had met earlier on Friday with members of Cuba's economic cabinet, including Economy Minister and Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas, Foreign Investment Minister Rodrigo Malmierca and Finance and Prices Minister Lina Pedraza.

A brief statement published in this morning's edition of Granma newspaper said during the Donohue-Raul Castro meeting “issues of mutual interest" had been discussed.

This is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce president's third visit to Cuba.  It comes just days before the inauguration of a new, conservative administration in the United States, led by business tycoon Donald Trump.  Donohue was accompanied by Chamber of Commerce Vice President Jodi Hanson Bond, and by Maurice Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of C.V. Starr & Co Inc, a large U.S. insurance company.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has opposed the Washington's economic sanctions against Cuba for decades and is a strong supporter of a normalization of relations between the two countries.

An agreement signed earlier this month allowed Cuba to export charcoal to the United States, the first Cuban export to the U.S. in half a century, and in December Google reached an agreement to place servers on the island to quicken access to Google platforms in Cuba.