Minnesota has stake in Cuba trade debate
American politicians placed a trade embargo on Cuba 53 years ago this month and only politicians can remove it, something being considered in Washington.
The process of normalizing relations with Cuba began on Dec. 17 when President Barack Obama took unilateral steps in that direction. Only Congress has power to lift the trade ban and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is lead sponsor on a bill to do just that.
Her Freedom to Export to Cuba Act would repeal trade restrictions and a related bill she co-sponsors would allow Americans and Cubans to freely travel between their countries.
The bills face plenty of opposition, but the Minnesota Democrat said that she will attempt to shift the focus away from politics and toward business and agriculture, which she said, could attract needed Republican votes.
“This is a different take on it,” Klobuchar said about concentrating on money.
Open trade supporters are banking on Democrats being pretty much united for ending the trade ban, and picking up Republicans who see it as helpful to business and agriculture.
Farm-state lawmakers are especially open to trade, Klobuchar said, because “they understand the economic factors in our own country. It is a very big deal to the ag community. … It is 11 million people right off our shores.”
Klobuchar and two other senators returned from a Cuba trip Monday. U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., landed there the next day with other congressmen. More U.S. officials are expected to make the trip south as the two sides examine ways to reach a more normal relationship.
However, Minnesotans issue warnings that Americans should not expect too much from Cuban trade.
“I think everyone should remember that Cuba is a fraction of the population of places like Mexico or Brazil,” said Bill Blazar of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. “I pick up the paper and see all of these political folks going to Cuba … but I hope we don’t lessen our efforts in places like Mexico.”
President Kevin Paap of the Minnesota Farm Bureau added that Cuba does not hold nearly the potential of much larger countries like China and India. “They are not a big market, but they certainly are a good market.”
Minnesota already has an “in” to the Cuban market, thanks in a large part to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who led a trade mission to the island in 2002.
While the trip’s big news was Ventura asking then-Cuban President Fidel Castro if he was involved in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination (Castro said he wasn’t), there was a lot of talk about agriculture trade, too. Relations built on the Ventura trip continue to keep open export opportunities today.
The state’s Cuba exports are allowed under a humanitarian exemption to the trade ban. The exception allowed Minnesota to sell nearly $27 million of agriculture products to Cuba in 2012 and $166,700 of medical products last year.
While the state has no predictions about how much Minnesota could export in medical devices and other products, Chief Economist Su Ye of the Minnesota Agriculture Department has ideas about ag exports.
Ye said the best-case scenario would be selling about $46 million of ag products to Cuba. If that happened, she added, Cuba would rise from Minnesota’s 50th most lucrative export market to 30th.
However, there are issues in dealing with the country.
Minnesota exports to Cuba fell 25 percent in 2013 and another 20 percent last year. Minnesota prices were higher in those two years and China was standing by with products of its own to sell.
China has “shown pity” on Cuba and offers to sell “at a very cheap price,” Ye said.
Cuban-American political drama also affects exports.
“Whenever there is tension between the two governments, Cuba then would turn to someone else,” Ye said.
Ye’s figures show that corn accounts for about half of Minnesota’s sales to Cuba, with soybeans, soybean meal and feed the others topping $1 million of exports in 2012.
She said that besides the top sellers, Minnesota has a potential of selling poultry, meat, dairy products, wheat and edible beans.
In a Thursday Havana news conference with other congressmen, Peterson said he has supported lifting the trade embargo since he was first elected 25 years ago.
“It’s hurt my farmers, and it’s hurt your people, because your food costs more,” Peterson said. “And it’s really a policy that makes no sense.”
While the United States can sell food to Cuba, Peterson said that Americans can help Cuba develop its own agriculture industry.
“You’re importing 75 percent of your food, and you don’t need to be doing that,” Peterson said. “You could be producing a lot of that food in Cuba. And I think the United States could help.”
Among Cuban officials Peterson and other congressmen met was Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is expected eventually to replace Raul Castro as president. It was Diaz-Canel’s first meeting with an official American delegation.
Much of the attention now turns to getting Republican support to end the embargo since the U.S. House and Senate both are GOP controlled.
Paap said he will be with a group of Minnesota Farm Bureau members in Washington beginning Monday, with trade at the top of the agenda.
“Trade is a huge deal to our members,” Paap said. “We grow more than we can use and we need to realize that 96 percent of the world’s population is not in the United States.”
Republicans must get on board the effort to normalize Cuban relations, he added. And action needs to come soon.
“If something doesn’t happen in Congress this spring and summer, we will be thinking presidential election,” Paap said, and once the presidential campaign is in full swing there is little chance of any change in Cuba policies.
Klobuchar, who hosts a Monday morning Cuba summit at the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus, said she was surprised that she was no stranger to many Cubans she met during her trip. “They knew who I was because of my bill to lift the embargo. … It was completely unexpected.”
(From: Twin Cities)
