WASHINGTON — Nearly a year after the Obama administration announced plans to renew diplomatic ties with Cuba, some members of the Arkansas congressional delegation are working to remove trade barriers.
But those measures face opposition from lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who say expanded trade will benefit that nation’s communist regime.
Currently, Americans can only ship goods to Cuba if they’ve already been paid for with cash. No credit can be extended to Cuban purchasers.
Arkansas’ other senator, Republican Sen. John Boozman, has introduced legislation allowing Americans to “provide payment or financing terms for sales of agricultural commodities to Cuba or an individual or entity in Cuba.”
On the House side, 1st District U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford is sponsoring House Resolution 3687, the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act, which would allow credit to be extended as long as “the agricultural business is not controlled by the Government of Cuba, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, the Ministry of the Interior of Cuba, or any subdivision of either governmental entity.”
This week, Boozman, of Rogers, said he’s still working to get his language approved and that he still is hopeful it will get passed before the end of the year. Despite time growing short, “I think it’s still in the mix,” he said, expressing hope that Congress would pass it before heading home for Christmas.
Ben Noble, the Arkansas Rice Federation executive director, said many rice growers are hopeful the barriers will be lifted. The federation describes itself as the state’s largest rice industry trade association.
Industry officials, heartened by the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations, invited Cuban officials to the 2015 USA Rice Outlook Conference in New Orleans this week.
An official with the Cuban Embassy’s Economic and Trade Office, Minister Counselor Ruben Ramos Arrieta, attended and expressed interest in importing more rice from the United States.
“I think there’s a lot of optimism” among rice farmers, Noble said. “I think there’s a real desire to get past the old Cold War philosophy with Cuba and re-engage.”
Earlier this month, Boozman told Delta Grassroots Caucus members and others that dropping the trade barriers is “good for the United States and it’s good for the people of Cuba.”
The U.S. initiated an economic embargo against Havana shortly after the ouster of dictator Fulgencio Batista by Fidel Castro. Trade restrictions have been in place ever since.
In 2000, U.S. law was changed to allow the sale of food and medicine. But in 2005, the Treasury Department said it would no longer allow sales that weren’t prepaid for in cash.
On Dec. 17, 2014, President Barack Obama took steps to normalize relations between the two countries, including announcing plans to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Havana. But federal law mandates many of the sanctions, and it would take congressional action to end them.
Cotton says Castro, not common Cuban citizens, would benefit from a change in trade policy.
“The president made a unilateral decision last December to recognize Cuba in return for nothing and, since then, Cuba’s behavior’s only gotten worse,” he said this week.
Cuba harbors American fugitives and imprisons political dissidents, and Fidel Castro and his brother Raul still call the shots, Cotton said. Raul Castro has replaced his brother as leader of Cuba.
“They continue to control all levers of the economy, so any kind of trade or economic activity that we have with Cuba ultimately doesn’t benefit the Cuban people and move them towards a safe, prosperous democracy that would be an ally of the United States,” Cotton said. “It simply enriches the Castro regime.”
Other agencies are also working to restore ties. On Friday, the U.S. Postal Service announced plans to restore direct mail service to Cuba. A pilot program is planned and no timetable was announced, according to The Associated Press.
Boozman said the embargo “hasn’t worked” and said U.S. trade policy should be consistent.
“We deal with a lot worse actors than Cuba. When you look at the Saudi Arabians’ human-rights record, the Chinese, the … Vietnamese,” he said. “There’s simply no reason to single them out at this point for something that happened decades ago.”
Crawford told the same group at the Delta caucus gathering that the trade barriers need to be lowered.
“From an Arkansas perspective, this is very important to us because two of the things that are most common on the menu in Cuba are rice and chicken, and those are two things that we do very well in Arkansas,” the Jonesboro Republican said.
Roughly half the nation’s rice in 2014 was grown in Arkansas. It has long been the state’s leading export.
Arkansas’ location gives it a competitive advantage over other rice growers. In Cuba, “you can get a shipment of rice from Vietnam in 36 days or you can get a shipment of U.S. rice in 36 hours,” he said.
Plus, Crawford said, Arkansas rice tastes better.
“We just have a higher quality product,” he said. “And I think the Cubans would be very, very happy to receive that and to deal with us. But we’ve got to get past that financing restriction that currently exists.”