A
Anonymous
Guest
We can buy billions from Communist China- who uses an ever changing currency- but we can't sell beef or Ag products to Cuba :???: And the President will veto a whole bill to prevent it ? I thought GW was a "free-trader"? Could this be a protect brother Jeb's butt action :wink: :???:
Showdown looming over farm trade with Cuba
WASHINGTON (AP) - A showdown is looming between the White House and Midwestern lawmakers who say new Bush administration rules are hurting the burgeoning farm trade with Cuba.
The dispute is over a rule issued by the Treasury Department in
February that requires Cuba to pay in advance for food shipments
from American exporters before they are shipped from U.S. ports.
Missouri Rep. Jo Ann Emerson inserted language last month in a
massive transportation and housing bill to stop Treasury from
enforcing the rule, calling it a "wrongheaded" policy that has
already caused a 25 percent drop in agriculture sales to Cuba this
year.
But the White House has threatened to veto the entire bill over
Emerson's language, saying the stiffer rules are part of the
sanctions to punish Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba. Still, the House
kept the provision when it passed the bill last month and a measure
with similar language is now working its way through the Senate.
"It's the most convoluted, ridiculous scheme that totally
backfires on the people who support the administration most -
farmers in rural America," said Emerson, a Republican.
By requiring payment to occur before shipment, Cuba has to own the rice before it leaves U.S. ports. David Coia, a spokesman for the USA Rice Federation, said the procedure is fraught with risks because Cuban exiles with claims against the Castro government could try to seize those shipments before they reach the island nation. Instead of facing those risks, Coia said Cuba is now turning to China and Vietnam to buy its rice.
"It's a huge problem, it's unfair and it goes against the
spirit of what Congress intended," Coia said.
Farmers won a partial victory late Friday, when the Treasury
Department said it would allow farmers to get around the rule by
using a third-country bank as their agent. The agency clarified the
rule under pressure from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who for months had blocked the confirmation of several Treasury Department
nominees over the dispute.
"This kind of transaction is far from ideal," Baucus said in a
written statement. "Sales will still be lost. But given the
burdensome restrictions imposed by Treasury and the resulting
plummet in agricultural sales to Cuba, something had to be done."
Baucus said farmers would never realize the full potential of
the Cuban market as long as the rule remains in place and vowed to continue efforts to overturn it through legislation.
The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba has been in place since
1960, but the restrictions were eased somewhat four years ago when Congress opened the market to shipments of food, medicine and agricultural products.
To the delight of American farmers, Cuba has purchased more than $1.3 billion in agricultural commodities from the United States
since the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act was passed in 2001.
Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said the rule was clarified in February at the request of financial institutions
dealing with sales to Cuba. While the policy is not meant to deter
farmers from shipping their products to Cuba, she said the
government strictly observes its sanctions policy.
That doesn't appease farmers. More than 40 groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the U.S. Dairy Export Council,
signed a letter to Congress earlier this year urging lawmakers to
neutralize the payment in advance rule.
Congress has run into roadblocks before when it tried to relax
sanctions on Cuba - such as lifting the ban on travel - only to see
the measures dropped during negotiations with the Senate. But the
exception for food and medicine has widespread support among rural, GOP-friendly districts.
Republican Rep. Jerry Moran of Kansas, for example, withheld his support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement until he
could raise his concerns over Cuba trade issue with President Bush.
"What I wanted to make certain was that there was an awareness on the part of the president that Cuba sales matter to Kansas farmers and to American agriculture," Moran said.
Showdown looming over farm trade with Cuba
WASHINGTON (AP) - A showdown is looming between the White House and Midwestern lawmakers who say new Bush administration rules are hurting the burgeoning farm trade with Cuba.
The dispute is over a rule issued by the Treasury Department in
February that requires Cuba to pay in advance for food shipments
from American exporters before they are shipped from U.S. ports.
Missouri Rep. Jo Ann Emerson inserted language last month in a
massive transportation and housing bill to stop Treasury from
enforcing the rule, calling it a "wrongheaded" policy that has
already caused a 25 percent drop in agriculture sales to Cuba this
year.
But the White House has threatened to veto the entire bill over
Emerson's language, saying the stiffer rules are part of the
sanctions to punish Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba. Still, the House
kept the provision when it passed the bill last month and a measure
with similar language is now working its way through the Senate.
"It's the most convoluted, ridiculous scheme that totally
backfires on the people who support the administration most -
farmers in rural America," said Emerson, a Republican.
By requiring payment to occur before shipment, Cuba has to own the rice before it leaves U.S. ports. David Coia, a spokesman for the USA Rice Federation, said the procedure is fraught with risks because Cuban exiles with claims against the Castro government could try to seize those shipments before they reach the island nation. Instead of facing those risks, Coia said Cuba is now turning to China and Vietnam to buy its rice.
"It's a huge problem, it's unfair and it goes against the
spirit of what Congress intended," Coia said.
Farmers won a partial victory late Friday, when the Treasury
Department said it would allow farmers to get around the rule by
using a third-country bank as their agent. The agency clarified the
rule under pressure from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who for months had blocked the confirmation of several Treasury Department
nominees over the dispute.
"This kind of transaction is far from ideal," Baucus said in a
written statement. "Sales will still be lost. But given the
burdensome restrictions imposed by Treasury and the resulting
plummet in agricultural sales to Cuba, something had to be done."
Baucus said farmers would never realize the full potential of
the Cuban market as long as the rule remains in place and vowed to continue efforts to overturn it through legislation.
The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba has been in place since
1960, but the restrictions were eased somewhat four years ago when Congress opened the market to shipments of food, medicine and agricultural products.
To the delight of American farmers, Cuba has purchased more than $1.3 billion in agricultural commodities from the United States
since the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act was passed in 2001.
Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said the rule was clarified in February at the request of financial institutions
dealing with sales to Cuba. While the policy is not meant to deter
farmers from shipping their products to Cuba, she said the
government strictly observes its sanctions policy.
That doesn't appease farmers. More than 40 groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the U.S. Dairy Export Council,
signed a letter to Congress earlier this year urging lawmakers to
neutralize the payment in advance rule.
Congress has run into roadblocks before when it tried to relax
sanctions on Cuba - such as lifting the ban on travel - only to see
the measures dropped during negotiations with the Senate. But the
exception for food and medicine has widespread support among rural, GOP-friendly districts.
Republican Rep. Jerry Moran of Kansas, for example, withheld his support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement until he
could raise his concerns over Cuba trade issue with President Bush.
"What I wanted to make certain was that there was an awareness on the part of the president that Cuba sales matter to Kansas farmers and to American agriculture," Moran said.