Cuba trade needs less, not more, roadblocks
By the H&REditorial Staff

Cuba wants to buy more goods from American companies. American companies are more than willing to sell their goods to Cuba.

All that's standing in the way is our government, which somehow believes the failed 40-year-old embargo is worth maintaining.

In fact, the government has recently taken steps to make trade with Cuba more difficult.

But we're not just talking about international politics here. Decatur-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. was the first U.S. company to trade with Cuba and continues to be the island nation's biggest trade partner. Last year, Cuba purchased $9 billion in corn from ADM, corn that is grown across the Midwest. Trade with Cuba is good for the Midwest and good for Decatur.

Despite the obstacles put up by our government, that trade continues to grow. At trade talks last week in Havana, Cuba agreed to buy about $125 million in farm goods from U.S. companies. More than 300 people, primarily representing producers of American farm goods, attended the talks.

Cuban officials said the trade talks were successful but warned that recent actions by the U.S. government had forced the country to buy some farm products from other countries.

Some U.S. companies found out in recent weeks that payments made by the island were not being credited to bank accounts on instructions from the U.S. government. The U.S. Treasury Department has since said it is letting transactions proceed on a case-by-case basis.

The Treasury Department is concerned about a law that requires U.S. exporters be paid before shipping their products to Cuba. Exporters have been shipping their products to Cuba before being paid, but the Cuban importers don't get the products until the payment is received. Basically, the shipments are put in a "holding area" until the payment is received.

The U.S. already requires sales to Cuba to be on a cash-only basis, meaning Cuba has to deal with shipping and hefty bank fees to make the sales work.

But despite all these hurdles, Cuba is still interested in buying farm products from American companies and American companies are interested in selling them.

There may have been a point to the whole embargo when it was imposed more than 40 years ago. But the embargo's lack of effectiveness has been proven time and time again. It has not hurt Communist dictator Fidel Castro.

The Cuba market is a good-sized market for American goods. It's close - about 90 miles from Florida - and there is apparent demand. The U.S. trade policy isn't consistent: We trade happily with China, a regime that is far more repressive than Cuba.

We can hope the embargo will be lifted, but that seems unlikely as long as George W. Bush is president and his brother, Jeb, is governor of Florida. The best that can be hoped for is the U.S. government won't take any additional steps to make trade with Cuba more difficult.

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