The House Agriculture Committee has approved legislation intended to increase U.S. farm sales to Cuba . The bipartisan measure was introduced by Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and co-sponsored by 62 House members.
"This legislation is the right policy at the right time," Peterson said. "We have tried to isolate Cuba for more than 50 years, and it has not worked. As it has in other countries, perhaps increasing trade with Cuba will encourage democratic progress."
However, if "trade" is understood to be a two-way street, there is nothing in the bill that would facilitate "trade" with Cuba . Provisions in the bill are decidedly one-way with regard to sales: the United States will do the exporting, and Cuba will do the importing.
The National Corn Growers Association says its members are pleased with the House Agriculture Committee action. "Increasing one-way trade with Cuba and lifting the travel ban will provide additional markets for corn products and co-products, which will in turn help the American farmer," said NCGA President Darrin Ihnen.
The organization notes that even under current circumstances, Cuba was the largest export market for U.S. corn during the 2008 and 2009 marketing years.
The National Farmers Union points out that before the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba was put into place nearly 50 years ago, 60 percent of Cuba 's food imports came from the United States . And, says NFU, the U.S. International Trade Commission predicts lifting the ban on agricultural goods would increase U.S. exports to Cuba to between $924 million and $1.2 billion.
However, "Due to continued arbitrary restrictions on U.S. agricultural sales driven by executive orders rather than acts of Congress, agricultural sales have steadily declined with a recent report by the ITC showing approximately merely $290 million in agricultural cash sales to Cuba ," says NFU.
Approval of the measure by the Agriculture Committee is only one step in a process that could lift the travel ban. Since the travel restrictions and banking provisions of the bill come under the jurisdictions of the House Foreign Affairs and Financial Services committees, respectively, both of those panels would need to sign off on the proposal before it could move to the House floor for debate and a vote.
Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) acknowledged that the language to lift the travel ban "is an area of primary jurisdiction" for his panel. But, he said, it was "to early to say" whether the committee would take the bill up. However, for the record, Berman added that for the past 25 years he has favored ending the travel ban.
