Published Monday, December 17, 2001 in
The Miami Herald.
2 U.S. food shipments arrive in Cuba
HAVANA -- (AP) -- The first U.S. commercial food shipments arrived in
communist Cuba on Sunday, raising hopes among people in both countries that the
symbolic act will be a foot in the door to future trade.
Carrying 26,400 tons of American corn, the Mexican freighter M.V. Ikan
Mazatlán passed the lighthouse built atop an old Spanish fortress at the
entrance of Havana Bay, coming from New Orleans on a two-day trip. It was one of
two ships that arrived in Havana with the first direct commercial agricultural
exports from the United States to Cuba since 1963.
Earlier Sunday, a freighter operated by Crowley Liner Services of
Jacksonville, arrived with about 500 tons of frozen chicken parts valued at
about $300,000, said Pedro Alvarez Borrego, president of the Cuban government
food import company Alimport.
The ship Express, flying a Liberian flag, left Gulfport, Miss., on Friday.
Representatives of American agribusiness and some U.S. officials hope the
shipments will lead to increased trade with Cuba, eventually creating a new
market for U.S. exports. Trade between the countries was extremely heavy before
the U.S. government imposed trade sanctions on Fidel Castro's government nearly
40 years ago.
"We are heartened and cautiously optimistic,'' said Larry Cunningham,
senior vice president of corporate communications for agribusiness giant Archer
Daniels Midland of Decatur, Ill.
"This proves that it makes logical sense for Cuba and the United States
to trade with one another,'' he said. "We think the best way to improve
relations with countries is for them to become trading partners.''
Sunday's shipment includes corn from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Under its sales contract with Cuba, the agribusiness company, ADM, is to
send seven more shipments of wheat, soy, rice and other grains through the end
of February, Cunningham said. The contracts have a combined market value of
about $14 million, the company has said.
Anti-Castro Cuban exiles say the direct sale of American food could erode
the embargo.
Castro last week called the purchase "a friendly response to a friendly
gesture.'' He apparently was referring to the U.S. offer of humanitarian aid
after Hurricane Michelle hit Cuba last month, destroying crops and thousands of
homes. The offer was politely rejected, but Castro said more purchases would be
possible if Washington allowed Cuba to sell its products in the United States.
Nearly all trade between the two nations is banned under the U.S. embargo.
Congress passed a law last year that permitted the sale of American food to Cuba
for humanitarian purposes but barred government and private U.S. financing of
such sales.
U.S. ships food to Cuba for hurricane relief
By Alan Sayre . Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS -- Carrying 24,000 tons of corn for hurricane relief, a freight
ship left New Orleans Friday with the first commercial export of U.S. food to
Cuba since 1963. U.S. officials voiced hope that the shipment would boost the
negligible amount of trade between the two nations.
"This is a bridge we need to build,'' said Illinois Gov. George Ryan,
whose state produced some of the corn. "Corn is forming a bridge today that
we need to build with the people of Cuba.''
But an anti-Castro group said the shipment would be used as a wedge to end
the United States' four-decade trade embargo against the communist nation and
allow Cuba to "export terrorism'' to the United States.
George J. Fowler III, general counsel of the pro-embargo Cuban American
National Foundation, said his group favored humanitarian shipments meant to
replenish Cuba's reserves lost in last month's Hurricane Michelle.
But Fowler asked why, if the current shipment is so vital, the freighter
took a 20-hour stop in New Orleans for a news conference.
"This press conference is about a show about lifting the embargo,''
Fowler said at the port.
"Cuba is a terrorist nation,'' Fowler said. Unrestricted trade with
Cuba, he said, will "put money in Castro's pocket, since he owns
everything, to export his revolution and terrorism to the detriment of the
United States.''
The freighter M.V. Ikan Mazatlan was loaded at an Archer Daniels Midland
port a few miles up the Mississippi River and brought to New Orleans Thursday.
It left shortly after Friday's ceremony for a two-day voyage to Havana.
A shipment of frozen chickens to Cuba is expected to depart later this
month. Archer Daniels Midland was contracted to deliver to Cuba 96,000 metric
tons of food items, including corn, soybean meal, wheat and rice, through
February.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald |