NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The farm lobby is using President Barack Obama’s easing of some travel restrictions to Cuba as an opportunity to push for increased sales of rice, meat, vegetables and other goods to the island nation.
Congress cleared the way for Cuba to buy U.S. agricultural commodities in 2000. But groups such as the USA Rice Federation say a 2005 interpretation of the law by an arm of the Treasury Department, requiring payment before goods were shipped, severely restricted sales.
“More and more in Congress feel the Cuba (trade) policy has served its time and it’s time for new and better ways to deal with” it, said Jamie Warshaw, federation chairman and a rice mill operator in Lake Charles.
At least 15 senators have joined agricultural groups in calling for greater trade with Cuba, including Montana Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He plans to introduce legislation to make it easier for U.S. farmers and ranchers to do business with Cuba.
Cuba was the top U.S. rice export market before the 1962 embargo. The industry believes if restrictions were eased, the island market could reach 400,000 metric tons a year or better for rice growers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri and Mississippi.
If realized, Cuba could become the United States’ No. 2 rice export market, well behind Mexico but firmly ahead of Venezuela. It also could mean business for Gulf ports, such as New Orleans, which once counted Cuba as a leading trade partner.
It’s unclear, however, how Cuba would react.
The Department of Agriculture said in a March 2008 report that officials with the Cuban agency handling U.S. food imports are “somewhat apprehensive about allowing the United States to provide a significantly larger proportion of Cuba’s food import requirements.”
Richard Fontenot, a rice grower near Ville Platte in south Louisiana, said freer trade would give U.S. rice producers a “definite advantage” over competitors in Thailand or Vietnam.
In March, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said it did not plan to revisit the Bush administration’s interpretation of the 2000 Cuba-trade law.
Before the ruling, Cuban buyers would begin payment of goods once they were shipped from U.S. port, routing the payments through third-party banks. There were no reports of buyers taking possession of shipments before completing payments, the 15 senators told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a March letter.
The senators said that practice worked well and have asked Geithner to change the Bush interpretation, which they believe could allow agricultural sales to Cuba at more robust levels.
Rice exports to Cuba fell from about 176,630 metric tons in 2004 to less than 13,000 metric tons in 2008, the federation said.
