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Ga.
Lawmaker Wants State's Goods to Be Sold
in Cuba
Bob Kemper -- The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, June 1, 2007.
WASHINGTON --- Seeing a chance to sell
Vidalia onions to one of the last Communist
bastions on the planet, Rep. Jack Kingston
of Georgia this week softened his opposition
to U.S. trade with Cuba following a visit
to the island nation.
Kingston, a Republican from Savannah, made
a subtle shift in his stance after visiting
an agricultural trade exhibition in Cuba
this week as part of a bipartisan congressional
delegation.
"The reason I went was to re-examine
it," Kingston said of the Cold War-era
ban on trading with Cuba. "I'm not
ready to vote to open up the trade nor am
I willing to say no to that.
"It's clear that a lot of Georgia
companies have a lot to gain by opening
trade" with Cuba, said Kingston, the
top-ranked Republican on the House Agricultural
Committee. Georgia onions, chicken and other
agricultural products could be among the
first to flow into the new market, he said.
Kingston and other conservatives have supported
the trade embargo against Cuba in hopes
of undermining President Fidel Castro's
Communist regime. But with Castro ailing
and his brother, Raul, in charge, some U.S.
leaders are looking for signs of change
inside Cuba's government.
Kingston said he was not encouraged by
the attitude of government leaders toward
establishing an open-market economy that
would allow U.S. companies to compete. Cuba
was ready to buy U.S. goods but not to allow
U.S. companies to compete within its economy.
"I was waiting for someone to say
Cuba is ready to engage and become part
of the modern world," Kingston said
Thursday. "I didn't get that answer."
Still, with Castro fading, the Cuban economy
in need of an injection of capital and the
Internet breaking down international boundaries,
re-establishment of U.S.-Cuban relations,
and trade, may be closer than ever, he said.
"It's time for people to start thinking
about a post-Castro Cuba," Kingston
said.
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