US Congress People Take Action to Expand Agricultural Trade with Cuba

Havana, July 20 (ACN) US congress people are looking for alternatives to lift the Biden administration’s ban on financing produce exports to Cuba as they favor the expansion of agricultural trade with the island.

Democratic Representatives Gregory W. Meeks, Hose Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, and Jim McGovern, who chairs the House Rules Committee, have backed an amendment to a draft bill on the financing by the Treasury and its Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The amendment would drop current regulations on the export of agricultural products exported from the US and would extend credits to Cuban food buyers for a year, according to the politicians, cited by PL news agency.

In the face of the complex scenario facing Cuba, this is the right moment to declare a temporary suspension by offering new opportunities to expand US exports to the over- 11-million people island market. The proposal has been backed by the two parties and agricultural groups around the United States, since it would create thousands of jobs and would provide the Cuban people with necessary foodstuffs at a lower cost, the congressmen said in a communique.

The US legislators alerted about the shortages facing Cubans, which have been worsened by the US economic, commercial and financial blockade of the island nation.

During last April’s Third US-Cuba Agricultural Conference, US farmers expressed their willingness to do whatever is necessary to improve bilateral trade.

In 2000, Washington announced an exemption to its blockade against Cuba by allowing the sales of foods, but not on credits, which forces the Cuban government to pay for those imports in cash.

The short distance between both countries would help lower shipment prices which Cuba is paying while purchasing foods in Europe or other faraway markets.