Hutchinson: Senator ‘on the right track’ with Cuba

The movement to lift a 55-year embargo on Cuba and extend credit lines for agricultural products gained reserved acceptance among top Arkansas lawmakers.

With cash at the docks being the primary method of payment, U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., co-sponsored the bipartisan Agricultural Export Expansion Act last week with a North Dakota senator to extend credit lines to Cuba. This came as a compromise two days after a Stuttgart-based Riceland executive called for the U.S. government to fully lift the embargo.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he felt Boozman was “on the right track” in looking for ways to help expand exports for farmers and the current debate “is healthy.”

Boozman’s move meets the Riceland executive Terry Harris halfway. Harris, the senior vice president of marketing and risk management for Riceland, told the Senate Agriculture Committee last week that that he has dealt with Cuba in the past and “small, incremental moves are not swaying them to work closely with us.”

Hutchinson said his viewpoint as a governor has shifted from the time he served as a U.S. Representative from 1996-2001 and he felt that extending credit was a balanced approach.

“I think that is a very good step that would balance the opening of a trading opportunity for Arkansas, but at the same time not go so far as to ignore the continued freedom violations or repressive leadership that we have seen over the many decades there in Cuba,” Hutchinson said Friday during a phone interview.

Hutchinson said he “hopes it gets a fair hearing in Congress, and gets to move forward.”

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman said he has reservations about relaxed trade relations with Cuba and is reserving judgment until formal legislation is presented in the House so he can “weigh the merits of proposed trade agreements against the human rights violations of the Castro dictatorship.”

In a 2014 report, Human Rights Watch said Cuba “continues to repress individuals and groups who criticize the government or call for basic human rights” through detentions, travel restrictions, beatings and forced exile. The report also notes Cuba released dozens of political prisoners and foreigners in Cuban prisons in 2010 and 2011.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Cuba was listed as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1982 after Fidel Castro’s training of rebels in Central America. The U.S. State Department’s annual report for 2013 states there is no evidence the country has provided training or weapons to terrorist groups. In April Obama said he planned to remove Cuba from the list, following the State Department’s recommendation. Cuba’s listing had been a major obstacle to talks about restoring diplomatic relations.

Food For Trade

Riceland hopes to capture 20 percent of the $300 million in annual rice sales to Cuba, most of which comes from Vietnam.

Tyson Foods also has done business with Cuba. In 2014, frozen chicken was the top U.S. export to Cuba, followed by soybean oil cake, soybeans, corn and mixed animal feeds, according to information provided by Interpro Translation Solutions. The Lisle, Ill. business put out a business guide in January called “Everything You Need to Know About Doing Business with Cuba.”

However, the guide did not mention all U.S. agricultural imports are now channeled through Alimport, a state corporation. Some competing nations have additional trading options within Cuba, according to Michael Scuse, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service.

Regardless, momentum to drop the embargo still exists following the Dec. 17, 2014, announcement that President Obama and Raul Castro said the United States and Cuba would restore full diplomatic ties for the first time in more than 50 years. The two met April 11 at the seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama. It was the first meeting between a U.S. and Cuban head of state since the two countries severed ties in 1961, according to the Council on Foreign Affairs.

At the sixth Summit of the Americas in 2012, numerous leaders across the political spectrum said the next summit must include Cuba. A final declaration at the summit was held up over the issue of Cuba.

In Arkansas, agriculture is a $9.5 billion annual business. Poultry makes up 40 percent of that, according to the Arkansas Poultry Federation.

“From our vantage point, we see the reforms announced as a positive for U.S. agriculture and businesses,” Tyson Foods spokesman Dan Fogleman wrote in an email. “We’ve been doing business with Cuba under the existing rules, and we welcome any reforms that will help simplify these transactions in the future.”

‘Promoting Democracy’

Dan Hendrix, CEO of the Arkansas World Trade Center based in Rogers, said things are in the works for developing better trade relations with Cuba. Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce has about 50 people signed up for a “Discover Cuba” tour in early June.

Herbert Morales, who serves as the Arkansas WTC’s Latin America Trade Specialist, will be joined by the Esperanza Massana, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s director of Business Development for Central and South America in the trip to Cuba. Zook pointed out it is “not a trade mission,” simply a trip to “get acquainted” with Cuban officials and become more familiarized with Cuban policies and traditions.

Mike Preston, the new executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission appointed by Hutchinson from a post in Florida, said normalizing relations with Cuba “presents a good opportunity to provide new benefits in the form of a new international market with which to trade.”

As someone who enjoys a fine cigar every now and then, Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders said he was in favor of easing travel and trade restrictions.

Boozman said he has long called for relaxing the travel ban and loosening monetary restrictions on Cuba for farmers and small businesses, dating back to his days in the House of Representatives.

“The U.S. has a proud record of promoting democracy abroad, and it is far more effective to have an open line of communication and a working relationship with governments in need of democratic assistance, rather than shut them out,” Boozman wrote in an emailed statement. “In normalizing trade relations, you not only trade goods, but ideas and example. I intend to work with my Senate colleagues to build on the President’s policy changes to create new opportunities for Arkansas’s farmers and small businesses while pushing for human rights and democratic change in Cuba.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack said that strengthening trade relations with other nations was important to build the United States economy, “but we must not do so in a way that compromises our values.”

“While no legislation has been introduced in the House, the time is ripe for Congress to have an open, honest conversation on the merits of altering our trade policy with Cuba,” Womack wrote in an email.

Earlier this year, Boozman joined Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to introduce the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015. It aims to legislatively address the administration’s proposal to loosen travel restrictions to Cuba and remove restrictions on banking transactions incidental to travel.

Boozman joined U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) in the introduction of the Agricultural Export Expansion Act (S. 1049) on April 22. The act would change a provision in current law to lift the ban on private banks and companies from offering credit for agricultural exports to Cuba. Boozman said it would “help level the playing field for U.S. farmers and exporters.”

(From: Times Record)