May 19, 2000

Time to change Cuban trade policy

When I traveled with the Texas Farm Bureau Board of Directors to Cuba this past month, I felt all of that, and much more. Communist nations are becoming a rarity in the world, and this socialist state, less than 100 miles from Florida, has a lot of history in common with America. An American cannot travel here without feeling the weight of old Cold War conflict and remembering the dread that went with having a Soviet ally, oh so close to U.S. soil.

Times change though, the Soviet Union is no more, and my impressions of the Cuban people were overwhelmingly positive. This is a country that not only seems to like Americans, but whose people are extremely curious about all things American.

When dealing with the Cuban people, I tried to keep one thing in mind. Freedom depends on the open and unrestricted flow of information. Our own First Amendment guarantees that, but it simply does not exist in Cuba. What Cubans know about America is carefully managed.

Elian Gonzales was taken from the Miami home of his relatives only a day before we left for Cuba, and there was much evidence of the crisis in Havana. We saw pictures of the boy, often depicted behind a chain link fence. The impression was that of a child being held in near prison-like conditions. Regardless of our feelings on that issue, it was important to remember that like most issues in Castro’s Cuba, Elian’s situation is being managed for political gain.

TFB challenged
Texas Farm Bureau has been challenged for supporting removal of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba as it applies to food and medicine. The bottom line is that we in TFB believe the time has come for a new policy.

This is a unilateral embargo, meaning that the U.S. alone embargoes the Cuban market. It also means that other countries happily supply their food needs. True, the price is higher and the quality not up to American standards, but it is enough to negate any effect our actions might have had.

There is an old tradition in U.S. foreign policy that retains the option of withholding food. This makes the most basic of life’s necessities a weapon. In almost every case I can think of, short of acts of war, this is a very bad idea.

To start with, it almost never works. In the case of Cuba, a dictator has survived almost 40 years without American products, with his hands gripping the reins of power more firmly than ever. My first hand look at this island nation indicates that we may have hurt some segments of the Cuban population with our embargo, and I know for a fact that we have hurt U.S. farmers, but frankly, we haven’t laid a glove on Fidel Castro.

We have traded many times with Communist nations and with dictators who hold absolute power over their people.

With Castro, however, we have made it personal. Grudges are a poor foundation upon which to build a trade policy. American rice in the stomachs of Cuban children does not add up to an endorsement of Castro or communism.

Open access, good will?
What it might add up to is this. Open access to the agricultural products of America’s farms and ranches might tap a reservoir of good will that no propaganda machine can obscure. It will be hard to deny the people of Cuba this opportunity, once they’ve experienced it. Exporting American food is also exporting the idea that our system works.

Lifting the sanctions on food and medicine would also send a message to our own farmers and ranchers. That message is that we will not allow petty politics and personal grudges to stand in the way of sound and reasonable agriculture and trade policy.

Rather than shaking our fist at Castro, perhaps the time has come to extend an open hand, with offers of American rice, wheat and other products. Rather than a futile attempt at bending a nation to our will, why not offer them a taste of the bounty of our American land?

I’m glad we went to Cuba. Texas agriculture is uniquely prepared for opportunities in Cuba once the embargo is lifted. We still have work to do in this country, but we are determined, and we are right.

American food in the homes of Cuba speaks of the hope and potential that is still the centerpiece of the American dream.