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Ark.
Rep: Lift Cuban Trade Embargo
Yahoo!
News. By Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
Writer, June 5, 2007.
Berry, Other Representatives
Want to Lift Trade Embargo With Cuba
LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Returning from his
second trip to Cuba in seven years, Rep.
Marion Berry joined other congressmen Tuesday
in calling for the Bush administration to
end the nation's 45-year trade embargo on
Cuba.
Berry, D-Ark., and others on a conference
call with reporters stressed the importance
of entering the Cuban market both economically
for farmers and as a security issue as China
offers more goods to the island.
"The interesting thing is they're
ready," Berry said. But "there's
nothing they can do about it. It's up to
our own government, and it's acts of the
executive branch that makes this so difficult."
Their calls came on the same day President
Bush decried Cuba as one of the "worst
dictatorships."
Berry joined five other congressmen on
a trip to Havana organized by the Center
for Democracy in the Americas, coming at
the same time of a major agricultural conference
in the Communist nation.
Berry, who previously traveled to Cuba
in 2000, said he found the Cuban officials
relaxed enough to speak English around the
congressional delegation. Berry said the
officials would only speak Spanish seven
years ago.
The members also traveled outside of Havana
into the countryside, where Rep. Bob Etheridge
said he saw the increased use of Chinese
products in Cuba, including food.
"Food should not be used as a leverage
against people," said Etheridge, D-N.C.
"As we rode through the country, there's
no question China is making substantial
investments in Cuba. ... I think from a
national security standpoint, it is time
for us to reevaluate a country that's 90
miles from our shore and Miami."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the group
also talked with those who raised concerns
about human rights in Cuba.
"I came away from this trip believing
more strongly than before that only by having
an enhanced dialogue with Cuba will we have
the platform or the leverage to seriously
address these issues without having them
brushed aside," she said.
However, while national security and civil
rights played a part in the visit, most
eyed Cuba as offering economic opportunities
for U.S. agriculture -- if the ban was lifted.
New rules put in place in 2000 allowed increased
agricultural trade with Cuba. Those rules
led to a short burst in trade the U.S. and
Cuba before the rules were clarified to
require cash in advance before shipping
products.
Last week, Cuba agreed to buy $118 million
in pork, soybeans, tomatoes and other U.S.
food products and officials said it was
negotiating deals that could bring the total
to nearly $150 million.
Lifting the embargo could let the United
States -- and especially Arkansas -- into
the nation's rice market. Estimates show
Cubans consume about 700,000 tons of rice
a year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
reported the United States exported 157,000
tons of rice to Cuba last year.
Last year, Arkansas farmers harvested 1.4
million acres of rice, worth more than $892
million, USDA statistics show.
"We don't necessarily have to agree
with the leadership or the control of a
country," said Rep. Rodney Alexander,
R-La., whose state produces rice. "We
can have differences of opinion, but when
it starts effecting the men and women that
produce goods and services in our country
that can be used by individuals in other
countries, that becomes our business."
Berry, who has supported lifting the embargo,
is in the farming business and his father's
own rice deal collapsed after the Castro-led
revolution in 1959. Now, as shipping prices
from Asian rice producers continue to climb,
he said it was time for the Bush administration
to think about lifting the ban.
"This is a window of opportunity with
mutual benefits to everyone concerned,"
Berry said. "It seems like a real shame
to let this moment pass."
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