By Les Kjos. UPI. Virtual New York. Wednesday, 2 May 2001
14:07 (ET)
MIAMI, May 2 (UPI) -- Ending the 40-year trade embargo against Cuba won't
be easy in the United States, but convincing Cuba may be just as difficult.
"What American liberals don't understand is that the Cubans are not
falling all over themselves to lift the embargo," said Jillian Clissold,
director of the Caribbean Project of Georgetown University's Latin American
Studies Center.
Clissold said they may be afraid that a sudden flood of American dollars
would overwhelm the island and there is the consideration that Cuban President
Fidel Castro would not have anyone to blame the island's troubles on.
John Kazulich, president of the U.S.-Cuban Trade and Economic Council in
New York, said he believes there is something to the notion that Cubans are
reluctant.
"The relationship between the two countries is about a series of
moments, some more significant than others," Kazulich said. "The
change in relationship is an incremental one. Both countries want it that way."
Last month's aborted voyage to bring goods to Havana from Jacksonville,
Fla., might have been an indication of Cuban cold feet.
The MV Orso left Jacksonville on April 21 and three days later was
scheduled to become the first loaded American freighter to dock in Havana in
four decades. But the night before, the Cubans told the shippers, Crowley Liner
Services, the Orso would not be welcome.
The freighter continued on to its next scheduled stop in Mexico, and the
cargo was later returned to the shippers in the United States. The cargo may
have been the problem.
The ship contained humanitarian items, legal under the Trade Sanctions
Reform and Export Enhancement Act passed by Congress last year. But it was also
carrying diplomatic cargo -- supplies for the U.S. Interest Section in Havana.
Shippers are not allowed to bring supplies from Cuba to its Interest
Section in Washington, and sources in Washington said the Castro government does
not think that's fair.
Cuba also has insisted that it won't buy U.S. rice or other goods
authorized by the act because of an amendment to the bill that bans U.S.
financial institutions from providing support for trade exports. Analysts say it
is nearly impossible to conduct foreign trade without trade finance.
Sally Grooms Cowal, career diplomat and a former ambassador to Trinidad and
Tobago, has embarked in the past month on a campaign to lift the embargo. She
said she doesn't care whether the Cubans and Castro really want to trade with
the United States.
"My reaction to that is 'so what?' " said Cowal, the founder of
the Cuba Policy Foundation but no fan of Castro. She wants to lift the embargo
and let the trading begin.
It was at Cowal's spacious Washington home that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez
and his father stayed last year while waiting for final approval to return to
Cuba. The boy, now 7, was the object of a custody fight between his father and
his Miami relatives after he nearly lost his life during his mother's attempt to
go to Florida in a small boat.
"Through the course of this, it opened my eyes anew to Cuba, but I
assure you it was not with rose-colored glasses," she said. "I did not
become pro-Cuba, but I became Cuba-focused and more focused on the fact that
perhaps we had a relationship that was perhaps not in the United States' best
national and economic interest."
She said the Cuba Policy Foundation is centrist in philosophy, advocating
democracy in Cuba but opposing the embargo.
"Che Guevara I'm not," she said. "But is there one company
in the United States that would continue with the same failed business practice
for 40 years and not think about changing it?"
To back her view, she cited a poll commissioned by the foundation that
showed that 52 percent of Americans believed the United States should do
business with Cuba, 32 percent it should not and the rest said they weren't sure
or didn't know.
The move to end the embargo has its supporters in Congress. Many Democrats
and many Republicans also favor free trade.
U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., said if the United States can trade
with China and Vietnam, it should trade with Cuba. He said Canada and Mexico,
partners with the United States in the North American Free Trade Agreement,
already deal with Cuba.
"Certainly we can do this," he said at a news conference with
Cowal last month.
Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., expressed his support for lifting the embargo
to Secretary of State Colin Powell during Powell's appearance before a
subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. The subcommittee has a major
role in setting the State Department's budget.
"I ask you," Serrano said, "why China and not Cuba?"
Powell responded several times that the administration has no intention of
lifting the embargo. The response came during criticism of the Cuban government,
calling Castro "an aging starlet" and "a leader who's trapped in
a time warp."
A congressional staffer who asked for anonymity said that although Canada
and Mexico trade with Cuba, it is on a limited scale.
"Would you want to do business with a country who doesn't pay its
bills?" he said.
Several countries, such as Peru and South Africa, are having trouble
collecting on even small debts from Cuba, he said.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.All rights
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