Published Monday, January 28, 2002 in
The Miami Herald
Report cites U.S. benefits of Cuba trade
By Juan O. Tamayo. Jtamayo@herald.com
Under optimum conditions -- a Cuban economy running at full throttle -- U.S.
agricultural exports to the island could generate up to $4.8 billion a year for
American firms, a group working to lift the U.S. embargo reported Sunday.
The report unveiled by the Washington-based Cuba Policy Foundation was part
of a campaign by groups opposed to the 40-year-old embargo on trade with Cuba to
show that Americans would profit if the restrictions are lifted.
A steady stream of U.S. Congress members, large agricultural firms and
farmers' groups have visited Havana recently to explore trade opportunities and
express their interest in improved U.S.-Cuba political relations.
"Our policy is . . . harming American farmers during these tough
economic times,'' former Agriculture Secretaries John Block and Dan Glickman
said in a letter to President Bush based on Sunday's report.
The study by Texas A&M University agricultural economists C. Parr Rosson
and Flynn Adcock estimated Cuba could eventually import $1.24 billion worth of
U.S. agricultural goods a year that would generate another $3.6 billion in
related American economic activity.
FLORIDA ESTIMATES
Florida could earn $28.5 million in direct exports and another $79.2 million
in "additional economic output,'' according to the study.
But that estimate is based on a thriving Cuban economy, assuming high income
from exports and a vast wave of U.S. tourism that would allow the now struggling
island to buy more goods abroad.
"This is a scenario that I find plausible,'' said foundation president
Sally Grooms Cowal, a former deputy assistant secretary of state. "And the
faster we do some of those things the faster we get to that scenario.''
The foundation report was met with skepticism from independent experts on
trade with Cuba, who noted that the island had imported only $750 million worth
of food and other agricultural products in all of last year.
"This is hypothetical. The only accurate portrait available today
regarding the commercial environment between the two countries must be based on
what Cuba has recently purchased from the United States,'' said John Kavulich,
president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
FOOD PURCHASE
And that, Kavulich added, was the $35.2 million worth of food that Cuba
bought from 13 American firms following Hurricane Michelle, which severely
damaged the island's agriculture in November.
President Fidel Castro of Cuba said last year that the $35.2 million
purchase was a one-time deal forced by the emergency.
Cuban officials later said, however, that the purchases could increase if
Washington eased its restrictions on sales to the island.
Skeptics said Cuba could indeed become a significant market for U.S. exports
in the future if it abandons its predominantly Marxist economic model and adopts
more free-market policies that generate domestic wealth.
But while Castro has eased some central government controls on the economy
over the past decade, the island's output remains relatively poor and mired in
inefficient bureaucracy, they added.
Cuban exile group sets off fireworks display off Cuban waters
KEY WEST, Fla. -- (AP) -- Members of a Miami-based Cuban exile group sailed
just outside Cuban territorial waters and set off a barrage of fireworks in
memory of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti.
The two boats from the Democracy Movement launched fireworks Saturday night
in a display that lasted for about 45 minutes, said Ramon Saul Sanchez, who
heads the group.
The exiles also prayed for the "unification of the Cuban nation,''
Sanchez said.
A U.S. Coast Guard vessel escorted the group for their trip from Key West
Saturday morning. The demonstration was without incident and the group's boats
returned to Key West Sunday morning, Sanchez said.
Sanchez, who has led previous flotillas, remained in Key West because he is
barred from leaving South Florida while he awaits trial on federal charges that
he and two other men illegally entered Cuban waters during a flotilla protest
last July.
The trial is set for May.
Sanchez said the flotilla did not breach Cuban waters, which begin 12 miles
from the country's shores.
The flotilla was originally scheduled for last month, but inclement weather
forced the group to postpone it. Marti's birthday is Monday.
"I believe that we really can make a difference,'' said Milagro L.
Velasco, a passenger on one of the boats. "We get in touch with the Cuban
people, and they know we are there.''
Copyright 2002 Miami Herald | 
