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AGRICULTURAL SALES TO CUBA KEEP RISING DESPITE EMBARGO & ADMINISTRATION POLICY CRACKDOWN.

Article Excerpt
Since late 2001, US exports to Cuba have gone from next to nothing to a multimillion-dollar business that has producers in virtually every state competing to sell in the Cuban market. While US President George W. Bush has made extraordinary efforts to tighten travel restrictions and cultural, academic, and scientific exchanges, there have been few serious efforts to block the burgeoning export business, almost all of which has taken place since he came to office in January 2001.

In the fall of 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Trade Sanctions Reform and Exports Enhancement Act, which allowed direct sales of food and medicine to Cuba on humanitarian grounds without some of the fatal restrictions previously attached to such sales (see NotiCen, 2000-10-12). Anti-Castro hard-liners saw to it that the bill contained language withholding public and private export credits, forcing Cuba to pay cash. While advertised as a gesture toward the farm-state members of Congress who had been pressing for an end to the trade embargo, the anti-Castro right viewed the legislation as a victory. They believed the bill gave the appearance of liberalizing trade without actually doing so because of the assumption that Cuba could not pay cash.

After Hurricane Michelle hit Cuba in November 2001 (see NotiCen, 2001-11-29), Castro rejected US offers of humanitarian aid, saying Cuba preferred to buy. Whether this was part of a strategy, the move was a key element in undoing the nearly complete prohibition...