Pent up growth?

In the comments to Department of non-leading indicators, commenter Arrow asks:

How much Cuban poverty could be eliminated by getting rid of economic sanctions? Would their economy grow as fast as China's?

No. The American trade embargo costs Cuba something, but they pretty much sell as much stuff as they can make (including tourism) to Europe and Latin America. Their problem is supply-side, not demand-side; a command economy just isn't very productive, particularly on a small island nation with nothing much in the way of natural resources.