Provision makes Cuba trade easier

Provision makes Cuba trade easier
Jerry Hagstrom,Agweek
Published: 07/20/2009

WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Committee July 9 approved a
provision by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that would make it easier for
Cuba to pay for the agricultural products it buys from the United States.

The measure, which was an amendment added to the fiscal year 2010
Financial Services Appropriations bill, would require the Treasury
Department to return to a system of requiring Cuba to pay for foodstuffs
before they arrive in Cuba, rather than before they leave the United
States. The bill still has to go to the Senate floor and later would
have to be paired with a similar measure in the House.

Dorgan noted to his fellow appropriators that the Treasury Department
initially had allowed Cuba to follow the normal commercial pattern of
making payment before goods arrive in a country, but that in 2005, the
Bush administration decided that "cash in advance" meant payment for the
goods before they left the country. The fiscal year 2009 omnibus
appropriations bill included language requiring Treasury to go back to
the earlier definition, but when Sens. Robert Mendendez, D-N.J., and
Bill Nelson, D-Fla., threatened to vote against the omnibus because they
objected to the Cuba language, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wrote
them a letter saying he agreed with the Bush administration's
interpretation of the "cash in advance" provision and that the language
in the omnibus would have no effect.

Dorgan said he introduced the measure because he has failed in his
attempts to convince Treasury officials to change their position.

"Someone down at Treasury apparently still can't hear," Dorgan said.
"We've had meeting after meeting after meeting."

Dorgan, author of the 2000 legislation that allowed food sales to Cuba
open up agricultural trade with Cuba in 2000, noted that the United
States has sold more than $2.5 billion in agricultural goods sold to
Cuba since 2001. Cuban officials have said the current payment system is
more expensive and difficult to manage.

"Our current policy hurts family farmers and restricts their ability to
ship their products to the Cuban marketplace," Dorgan said in a news
release. "The Castro brothers have never missed a meal because of this
policy, but it has hurt our family farmers and ranchers. This amendment
returns the policy to the way Congress intended in 2000 — allowing U.S.
agricultural products to be paid for when they are delivered, not before
they have left our shores. This change will make it easier for our
producers to sell their goods to Cuba, and it makes good economic sense
for family farmers in North Dakota and across the country."

Provision makes Cuba trade easier | Agweek | Midwest farm news and ranch
news (20 July 2009)
http://www.agweek.com/articles/?id=5090&article_id=14658&property_id=41