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White Paper Explores Opportunities for U.S. Ag in Cuba
USAgNet - 12/01/2017

Two leading advocates for normalizing trade with Cuba announced the release of a new white paper--Opportunities for U.S. Agriculture in Cuba: A White Paper--that examines how 16 farm states could benefit if the United States repeals longstanding restrictions on food sales to the island nation.

The paper is produced by Cuba Trade Magazine, the national monthly publication covering trade and investment with Cuba; and the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba (USACC), the largest U.S. agricultural coalition. It's based on research analysis provided by the University of Florida and Texas A&M.

"This white paper provides some of the most convincing evidence to date regarding the detrimental effects that the U.S trade sanctions on Cuba trade are having on America's pocketbook," said Cuba Trade Magazine Publisher Richard Roffman. "The negative impact that these trade barriers continue to impose on agriculture -- extensive as they are -- in fact can be multiplied across all of America's industrial sectors. For this reason, we believe policymakers soon will see the great value -- to the United States and Cuba alike -- in rescinding these constraints and reopening the natural flow of trade."

Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) support easing restrictions on trade with Cuba and who have championed bills that would ease barriers that farmers currently face in selling their products to Cuba by allowing them to sell their products on credit, which currently is forbidden under U.S. law, applauded the white paper.

"This new report from Cuba Trade and USACC goes a long way toward highlighting how much U.S. farmers and agricultural businesses have to gain by eliminating outdated trade restrictions such as the credit ban," said Crawford, lead sponsor of the Cuba Agricultural Export Act of 2017. "For example, while U.S. producers are already permitted to export agricultural commodities to Cuba, they must do so on a cash-for-crop basis. That cash-only requirement renders export transactions nearly impossible, because foreign importers almost exclusively do business on financing and credit. That's why Cuba buys rice from faraway Vietnam at a higher cost, when it could be buying U.S.-grown rice at an affordable cost from nearby Arkansas. It simply makes no sense."

The white paper is sent out to all members of Congress, to all members of the legislatures in each of the 16 states covered in the report, and to all farm bureaus and state agriculture commissions in those states--as well as to the full readership of Cuba Trade Magazine, and top executives at the largest U.S. agriculture companies.


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