The Miami Herald.
Published Friday, November 16, 2001
U.S. farmers elated over Cuba trade
By Tim Johnson. tjohnson@krwashington.com
WASHINGTON -- U.S. grain vendors on Thursday celebrated a decision by Cuba
this week to buy up to $10 million in food and medicine supplies from the United
States to deal with Hurricane Michelle's devastation.
"We're very excited about it,'' said Audrae Erickson of the American
Farm Bureau. "We believe it's the beginning of rebuilding our trade
relationship with Cuba.''
Grain dealers said the historic agreement -- which is likely to produce the
first U.S. commercial exports to Cuba in four decades -- could ignite broader
lobbying efforts to relax a 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo of Cuba.
"It really does start the engines revving on U.S. interests in sales to
Cuba,'' said Pamela Falk, a law professor at the City University of New York and
frequent advisor to U.S. farm groups interested in selling to Cuba.
Already, a Cuban purchasing agency has contacted 12 U.S. companies to
inquire about purchases of wheat, soy, flour, corn and rice. Inquiries are
expected for wood products, baby food, powdered milk, poultry, cooking oil,
beans and medicines, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council said.
The New York-based group said Havana wants all purchases shipped by Dec. 10.
The State Department gave new assurances that it would facilitate the
emergency sales.
"Given the humanitarian nature of their request, we will consult with
other government agencies and seek to expedite authorization of approved
sales,'' said Charles Barclay, spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of
Western Hemisphere Affairs.
HURRICANE
Observers of U.S.-Cuba relations said the devastation of Hurricane Michelle
gave Cuba a way to change policy on purchases of U.S. food and medicine without
appearing to back down on a previous refusal.
Thirteen months ago, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage warned that the island
nation would not buy "a single grain of rice or a single aspirin'' from the
United States unless Washington lifted the U.S. embargo. He made the remark
after Congress enacted a law allowing cash sales of food and medicines to Cuba,
but prohibiting Cuba from using U.S. banks or government entities to finance
Cuban purchases.
In an about-face from that earlier stance, the government of President Fidel
Castro said Nov. 8 that it would pay cash for U.S. goods. It also agreed to use
U.S. vessels or ships from third countries to ship the goods.
DOING A 180
"This is Fidel doing a 180,'' said a U.S. official, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
A variety of factors led Havana to the change, analysts said, including a
sharp drop in tourism following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United
States, and heavy damage from the Nov. 4 hurricane to the key sugar cane and
citrus industries.
Another major apparent factor was Havana's realization that U.S. farm
interests were growing irritated over Cuba's decision not to purchase U.S. goods
despite the more relaxed rules.
Although the Commerce Department implemented regulations at the end of July
outlining procedures for cash sales to Havana, Cuba balked at actually buying
anything.
"The U.S. agribusiness lobby threw up its hands to some extent,'' Falk
said.
DISAPPOINTMENT
The disappointment set in among powerful U.S. interests that have been
instrumental in pressuring legislators to relax trade sanctions on Cuba.
"A lot of people watching the Cuba debate have seen the wind go out of
the agricultural sector sails a bit,'' said Gillian Gunn Clissold, director of
the Caribbean Project at Georgetown University.
With the need for hurricane relief, "it was a face-saving way out for
the Cuban government to modify its policies on purchases of food,'' Falk said.
Even as U.S. grain vendors welcomed the sales, the trade group warned
against excessive enthusiasm.
ADMONITION
"No United States-based company should be signing up for conferences on
'How to do business with the Republic of Cuba' based upon these sales,'' the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council told its members in a mass e-mailing.
The e-mail from the trade council, which advocates greater trade with Cuba,
said U.S. concerns contacted by Cuba about sales include Archer Daniels Midland
of Decatur, Ill., Arkansas-based Riceland Foods and Cargill Inc. of Minneapolis,
Minn.
SLIGHT PROFIT
The director of the U.S.-Cuba council, John Kavulich, said U.S. businesses
plan to sell to Cuba at cost or with only slight profit. He said he expected the
one-time food and medicine sales to revive efforts by farm-belt legislators to
seek a further relaxation of the four-decade-old U.S. embargo.
"There is a potential upside to this,'' Kavulich said. "Some
members of Congress who have been supportive of a [trade] relationship [with
Cuba] will be energized.''
Cuba currently buys between $700 million and $1 billion in foodstuffs from
U.S. competitors each year, primarily Vietnam, France and Argentina.
"We believe that a $1 billion market -- and one that might grow once
American tourists arrive there -- is one worth pursuing,'' Erickson said.
Cuba calls U.S. offer of aid positive and says it's ready for normal
relations with Washington
UNITED NATIONS -- (AP) -- Cuba's foreign minister called a U.S. offer of
assistance for the first time since the United States imposed a trade embargo in
1961 "a positive signal'' and declared that Havana was ready for normal
relations with Washington.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Felipe Perez Roque said he hoped
the U.S. offer of help after Hurricane Michelle devastated the island nation
earlier this month signaled a change in policy by President George W. Bush.
Asked what Cuba would consider a positive, follow-up action by the Bush
administration, he replied: "To allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba.''
Unless granted waivers, U.S. citizens are banned from Cuban travel.
Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since shortly after Fidel Castro
defeated the CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. His communist
nation, just 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Miami, has continued to vex
subsequent U.S. administrations.
Perez Roque said U.S. policy toward Cuba has been "held hostage'' by a
minority of Cuban-Americans opposed to lifting trade restrictions.
He said "it would be very positive'' if Bush decided "to go beyond
the influence'' of this small group "from the far right in Miami'' and pay
closer attention to U.S. public opinion, which he said supported lifting the
embargo. Bush has previously vowed not to ease the trade ban.
Even though Cuba has suffered under the U.S. embargo, Perez Roque said, its
people have "no grudges or ill-feelings'' toward Americans.
Cuba, he said, "stands ready to have normal, respectful relations with
the United States.''
There have been no political discussions between the two countries since
1982. As the price for normal relations, the United States demands that Castro
replace his communist system with democracy.
Perez Roque said that, although Cuba turned down the offer of U.S. aid, it
has opened talks with the United States for a one-time cash purchase of food and
medicine to replenish stocks depleted by the hurricane.
Creating a small opening in the trade embargo, the U.S. Congress last year
legalized sales of food to the communist island for the first time since 1961.
The Cuban government vowed not to buy "a single gram'' of American food
unless Washington did more to loosen or do away with the trade restrictions.
But Castro made an exception because of the devastation of Hurricane
Michelle, which destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses and vast tracts of
farmland. Perez Roque called it the worst hurricane to hit Cuba in half a
century, saying it decimated the country's banana plantations and badly affected
the citrus and sugar crops.
"The government of the United States offered assistance to us. They
offered to send some people from the United States to make an assessment on the
damage, and then provide assistance,'' the foreign minister said.
"We replied that it was very positive that, for the first time ever
after 40 years, the United States was going to have a gesture of this nature
toward Cuba,'' he said.
Perez Roque didn't say why Cuba had rejected the U.S. help and offered
instead to pay cash for food and medicine, but he reiterated that the government
wanted to seize "that positive offer made by the government of the United
States.''
The foreign minister said the fact that the highest levels of the Bush
administration have to authorize a special permit for the shipments "proves
how irrational the blockade of the United States against Cuba is, and how
pointless it is to maintain the current blockade restrictions.''
U.S.-Cuban talks are under way through diplomatic channels, Perez Roque
said, and he is "moderately optimistic'' that an agreement will be reached
to allow the shipments of food and medicine.
Cuban officials have presented a list of goods for examination by U.S.
officials, and also have contacted 15 agricultural and pharmaceutical companies
in the United States, he said.
U.S. sources estimated the value of the products requested by Cuba at
between dlrs 3 million and dlrs 10 million, but Perez Roque couldn't confirm the
figures.
The foreign minister indicated that, if approved, the goods would be shipped
on U.S. or third-country vessels. The United States rejected a Cuban request
that the goods be transported on Cuban ships, U.S. sources said. Perez Roque
indicated that Cuban boats might be subject to seizure in U.S. waters.
Pamela Falk, a law professor and consultant to several grain and producer
groups, called the expected deal "a toe in the door'' and predicted that
U.S. sales to Cuba could reach dlrs 1 billion a year if political conditions
were to improve.
U.S., Cuba reach deal on storm relief
By Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com. Published
Thursday, November 15, 2001
Hurricane Michelle has apparently done what no political lobby, no
administration, no Congress has been able to do in 40 years: get Cuba and the
United States to talk business.
Officials from the communist island -- slapped with U.S. trade sanctions
four decades ago -- agreed Wednesday to allow U.S.-flagged ships and planes to
deliver goods in the aftermath of the worst storm to hit Cuba in more than 50
years, Washington sources said.
Cuba has offered to pay $3 million cash for 15,000 tons of grain and
medicine, sources said.
Hurricane Michelle steamrolled across central Cuba on Nov. 4, battering
sugar cane and citrus crops, wrecking thousands of homes and killing five
people.
Last week, Cuban officials refused an offer from the State Department to
provide aid after U.S. damage assessment teams traveled to the island to see the
damage firsthand, said a State Department official who asked not to be
identified.
No thanks, the Cubans said. "They said what they did need was food and
medicine to replenish their emergency stockpiles,'' the official said, and they
offered to pay cash. But they wanted to transport the goods in Cuban vessels.
"They said it would be easiest and least expensive'' to do it that way,
the official said. "We told them that in the interest of expediting the
purchases and the relief, it would be easier to facilitate the shipment via
either planes or ships which were not Cuban vessels.''
Wednesday, Cuba told U.S. diplomats they were negotiating with U.S.
companies to buy the supplies, he said.
"The question of what flag vessel carried the purchases was not an
issue,'' he said.
The official said he did not foresee a problem with the U.S. companies
obtaining licenses to sell the goods to Cuba.
When Congress approved the sale of food and agricultural products last year,
however, lawmakers barred the Cuban government from buying on credit -- a
condition Fidel Castro rejected.
"Fabulous. I think it's wonderful,'' said Elena Freyre, an anti-embargo
activist in Miami, when told of the negotiations. "It's a terrific gesture
from both governments, and I hope it can be done soon.''
She said it was too soon to know if the measures would begin to chip away at
the embargo. "But it could be a first step,'' Freyre said.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation,
called the move a political smoke screen.
"This is a mere fraction of the aid that could be given if the Cuban
government was willing to accept people-to-people donations. It is sad that they
are using their ever-decreasing resources on buying what the U.S. government and
the Cuban exile community would willingly give, were it allowed to reach the
people,'' Garcia said.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
