Engagement with Cuba in our National Interest

LEGISLATION TO END THE TRAVEL BAN FOR ALL AMERICANS AND REMOVE BARRIERS TO FARM EXPORTS TO CUBA

A new and exciting legislative initiative on Cuba before the U.S. Congress this year is The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (HR 4645), bi-partisan legislation introduced by Representatives Collin Peterson (MN) and Jerry Moran (KS) with sixty-five House cosponsors.

This legislation would end the travel ban for all Americans and remove barriers to increasing our agricultural exports to Cuba.  

The value of this proposal is simple and straightforward:  Selling more U.S. food to put on the tables of Cuban families, and putting more American travelers on Cuban streets, will create more jobs for the U.S. economy, and improve the lives of the Cuban people –providing them with high quality food at a reasonable price and enabling more contact with Americans and our ideas.

The Peterson-Moran bill was introduced on February 23, 2010.  Just a few weeks later, the full House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the legislation, and it was endorsed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, leading commodity groups, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops among many others.

In his statement at the hearing, Congressman Peterson said:

“The restrictions on agricultural trade with Cuba have failed to achieve their stated goal, and instead they have hand-delivered an export market in our own backyard to the Brazilians, the Europeans, and our other competitors around the world….It’s time we ask ourselves why we have in place policies that simply do not work and that only harm U.S. interests.”

Specifically, the Peterson-Moran bill eases some restrictions on the ability of Cuba to buy our agriculture products by allowing U.S. banks to process these transactions and by normalizing the rules governing when Cuba must pay for the food shipments it purchases.  It also ends all travel restrictions on U.S. citizens visiting Cuba.  

Farm organizations point out that such a surge in tourism would increase Cuba's ability to buy even more U.S. exports of food and create more jobs here in the United States.  

According to the U.S. International Trade Commission’s figures, the Peterson-Moran bill would increase export food and agricultural sales to Cuba by roughly $500 million a year; these reforms will support thousands of jobs in the farm and tourism sectors.

The idea of increasing trade and travel relations with Cuba was recently endorsed by John Block, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s agriculture secretary.  In this advertisement, Secretary Block says increasing food exports to Cuba and allowing all Americans to travel to the island freely reflected the conservative values that brought him to Washington.

On June 30, 2010, the Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives voted 25-20 to favorably recommend H.R. 4645 to the House floor.  We’ll know in the coming weeks how the votes are coming together for a floor vote and report on that progress accordingly.   In the meanwhile, we are offering these resources that explain the legislation and offer the most persuasive arguments for its adoption. 

Legislators in the House and Senate continue to urge support for The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act whose sole purpose is to end the travel ban.  Background materials on that legislation can be accessed here.