UPI. NewsMax.com. Tuesday, May 23, 2000
WASHINGTON - White House officials Monday said they had serious concerns about a provision moving through Congress that would lift sanctions on Cuba for food and medicine.
In the administration's first public comments on the bill, White House spokesmen said they are sympathetic to the humanitarian goals of the legislation but concerned the provision would limit the ability of the president to establish sanctions against rogue nations.
As the administration has made its top legislative priority the establishment of stronger trade relations with China, a number of members of Congress have pushed for easing the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The administration has argued that increasing trade with China will improve that nation's human
rights record and increase opportunities for dissidents and democratic organizations to get ideas and support from the United States. Some members of Congress have said that the same logic should apply to Cuba.
The House and Senate have drafted agriculture spending bills for next year that would lift the ban on selling food and medical supplies to Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Iran. In the House, the language was sponsored by Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., who argued that lifting sanctions
would provide tremendous new markets for U.S. agricultural products.
The Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month approved similar language offered by Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo. That legislation passed the Senate overwhelmingly in the 105th Congress.
The legislation would prohibit the president from establishing unilateral sanctions on food or medicine without the express approval of Congress. The prohibition would be waived for any nation with which the United States is at war.
The White House has never expressed an official view of the measure, and spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters Monday, "I haven't actually looked at the language in that specific bill. We have always been open to providing direct help to the Cuban people that does not impart some sort of
benefit on the Cuban government, so we'll look at it with that same criteria."
National Security Council Press Secretary P.J. Crowley added that the administration is "sympathetic" to the goals of the bill, but concerned about the mechanism. Crowley said the White House is concerned about "locking in the president" to a sanctions policy that leaves him
no flexibility or would "tie his hands" in foreign affairs.
Lockhart and Crowley said that extending trade to China has nothing to do with policy toward Cuba. Lockhart said Clinton "views the two countries differently," and believes they can be treated differently. Crowley said "Cuba has not changed its economy the way China has." The
Cuban Democracy Act, passed by Congress several years ago, spells out detailed steps Cuba would have to take to earn reduced sanctions. Crowley argued that Cuban leader Fidel Castro "has responded in no way, shape or form to the path outlined in the Cuban Democracy Act."
A spokesman for Nethercutt said Monday, "We're not trying to tie their hands. We are trying to join hands with them in opening other markets ... to our agriculture producers."
Nethercutt is reportedly meeting with House Republican leaders to discuss possible changes to the bill. The legislation is bitterly opposed by Republican Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who tried but failed to get the Appropriations Committee to strip the sanctions language from the agriculture
spending bill.
The House Rules Committee may take up the bill this week, but with most attention focused on Wednesday's China trade vote, the full House may not get around to final action on the Cuba language until after the Memorial Day recess.
Some sources say Republicans may try to strip the language from the agriculture spending bill because that bill carries billions of dollars in aid to farmers, and many members of Congress want to avoid slowing the bill down with controversial provisions.
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