NewsMax.com. Friday,
February 16, 2001
Opponents of United States economic sanctions against Communist Cuba argue
it's harming American business. A new, comprehensive study generally disagrees.
The independent, nonpartisan evaluation also indicates the U.S.-imposed
trade restrictions aren't doing much to injure Cuba economically, either.
While the most-exhaustive federal examination ever of the four-decades-old
embargo against American firms doing business with the island dictatorship
offers talking points for both sides in the debate, the weight of the findings
favors those who argue against lifting it.
According to the Associated Press, which obtained a summary of the
unreleased text:
In its report to Congress, the International Trade Commission said that the "U.S.
economic sanctions with respect to Cuba generally had a minimal overall
historical impact" on the economy of either country.
Even without sanctions, the study found, Cuba's own policies would still
limit its trade with the rest of the world.
It said the authoritarian government of President Fidel Castro "tends
to select its trade and investment partners based on political considerations –
the desire to maintain economic ties with existing partners and to avoid
becoming economically dependent on a single country – rather than economic
cost factors."
The report estimates that in the absence of sanctions the United States
overall would have gained $652 million to $990 million a year in exports, while
Cuba would have gained $84 million to $167 million a year.
Not insignificant sums, they pale by comparison with what U.S. companies
export to the Dominican Republic, a smaller Caribbean country – more than
four times what they are now losing in trade with Cuba.
Dennis Hays, executive vice president of the Cuban-American National
Foundation, said:
"The ITC basically established what we've been saying all along.
There's a minimal impact on U.S. business because of the sanctions."
Those U.S. economic interests that would benefit most by ending the embargo –
and have been most injured by it – are the tourism and rice-producing
industries.
Without sanctions, the study estimated, a million U.S. tourists would visit
Cuba each year, benefiting U.S. travel businesses that book trips as well as the
Cuban economy.
It also said sanctions have impeded by 3 to 5 percent a year the business
growth of U.S. rice exporters, whose leading market from 1955-58 had been Cuba. | 