The weekly service, which stops in Kingston in between Houston's Bayport terminal and Cuba, is the first service in nearly 50 years to connect the Texas port with Cuba. According to the report, the French container line received a license from the U.S. government to serve the trade through October 2011.
Prior to the new service, shippers in Texas had to route their goods through a Florida port that connected with the Caribbean island nation. Officials from Cuba and Texas have conducted tours in recent years to stoke trade. A Houston port official told the newspaper that in 2008, only 0.01 percent of the port's tonnage moved to Cuba, though exports to Cuba were hurt that year by hurricanes on the island.
