Obama Should Lift Embargo on Cuba Immediately
by Daniel Griswold
After nearly 50 years, America's cold war embargo against Cuba appears to be thawing at last. Earlier this spring, the Obama administration relaxed controls on travel and remittances to the communist island by Cuban Americans, and last week it agreed to open the door for Cuba's re-entry to the Organisation of American States.
Admitting Cuba to the OAS may be premature, given the organisation's charter that requires its members to be democracies that respect human rights, but changes to the US economic embargo are long overdue.
The embargo has been a failure by every measure. It has not changed the course or nature of the Cuban government. It has not liberated a single Cuban citizen. In fact, the embargo has made the Cuban people a bit more impoverished, without making them one bit more free. At the same time, it has deprived Americans of their freedom to travel and has cost US farmers and other producers billions of dollars of potential exports.
As a tool of US foreign policy, the embargo actually enhances the Castro government's standing by giving it a handy excuse for the failures of the island's Caribbean-style socialism. Brothers Fidel and Raul can rail for hours about the suffering the embargo inflicts on Cubans, even though the damage done by their communist policies has been far worse. The embargo has failed to give us an ounce of extra leverage over what happens in Havana.
In 2000, Congress approved a modest opening of the embargo. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act allows cash-only sales to Cuba of US farm products and medical supplies. The results of this modest opening have been quite amazing. Since 2000, total sales of farm products to Cuba have increased from virtually zero to $691m in 2008. The top US exports by value are corn, meat and poultry, wheat and soybeans. From dead last, Cuba is now the number six customer in Latin America for US agricultural products. Last year, American farmers sold more to the 11.5 million people who live in Cuba than to the 200 million people in Brazil.
According to the US international trade commission, US farm exports would increase another $250m if restrictions were lifted on export financing. This should not be interpreted as a call for export-import bank subsidies. Trade with Cuba must be entirely commercial and market driven. Lifting the embargo should not mean that US taxpayers must now subsidise exports to Cuba. But neither should the government stand in the way.
USITC estimates do not capture the long-term export potential to Cuba from normalised relations. The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Guatemala spend an average of 2.8% of their GDP to buy farm exports from the US. If Cuba spent the same share of its GDP on US farm exports, exports could more than double the current level, to $1.5bn a year.
Advocates of the embargo argue that trading with Cuba will only put dollars into the coffers of the Castro regime. And it's true that the government in Havana, because it controls the economy, can skim off a large share of the remittances and tourist dollars spent in Cuba. But of course, selling more US products to Cuba would quickly relieve the Castro regime of those same dollars.
If more US tourists were permitted to visit Cuba, and at the same time US exports to Cuba were further liberalised, the US economy could reclaim dollars from the Castro regime as fast as the regime could acquire them. In effect, the exchange would be of agricultural products for tourism services, a kind of "bread for beaches", "food for fun" trade relationship.
Meanwhile, the increase in Americans visiting Cuba would dramatically increase contact between Cubans and Americans. The unique US-Cuban relationship that flourished before Castro could be renewed, which would increase US influence and potentially hasten the decline of the communist regime.
Congress and President Barack Obama should act now to lift the embargo to allow more travel and farm exports to Cuba. Expanding our freedom to travel to, trade with and invest in Cuba would make Americans better off and would help the Cuban people and speed the day when they can enjoy the freedom they deserve.
Sign up for the OV Daily Newsletter
OV Social
How should I say this? Smoke and mirrors. Yes, that's what the embargo is. Smoke and mirrors. Money? Not at all the issue.
Of course the embargo should be lifted, but that would actually solve the problem. Yes, the problem that gives millions and millions of dollars to those actively in hot pursuit of profit from its existence. The lifting of the embargo is akin to a spider web cleaner killing the spider which creates the webs he gets paid to remove. Kill the spider, your job is over.
Sorry, it is realistically going to be harder to lift the embargo than to shot Fidel in the head from a beach front apartment in Miami. Fidel is the reason for the embargo, thus the reason for those financially benefiting from the embargo to defend the embargo all the more.
Your business Geegee, I am sorry to say, raises no interest on behalf of these so-called activists/gougers. The money that Florida could be making IS huge, but compared to the political cost of actually being the party who removed the Cuban embargo... well, let's just say no one has wanted to go there yet.
Fidel's maneuvering of the embargo has been nothing short of a show of brilliance. The embargo feeds his government , more than we all know. Without it, it would have been impossible to last this long. They know it, they act upon it, they have single-handedly contributed more to its existence than any other political lobbyist could have. But it is inconvenient to know these things. For the existence of the embargo is shored up by blocks we will never see, hidden under layers and layers of hate, greed, politics , and a never ending thirst for power on both sides of the straits.
The embargo will end when Castro dies , and Cuba will descend into the bowels of hell before it reappears as its real self. The price we Cubans must pay for the political maturity needed to govern yourself. Jose Marti said each country had the government it deserves, and boy was he right.
I dont think Cuba is on the Euro... it is the CUD. CUBA IS NOT A EUROPEAN COUNTRY.
I purchased the SEA TOW /SEA SPILL rights to Cuba 15 years ago. It is a towing and environmental assisted boat service.
Because of the embargo to Cuba, I have been unable to open or start my business to go there or even to assist
U.S. boaters in trouble that are in Cuba, passing and on the way to the US. I am an American and my travel by boat has been restricted.
Do you have any IDEA OF THE IMPACT and cost of this embargo? Especially for Florida. The Sea Grant Program in Gainesville in 1994
estimated back then that Florida was losing over $8 million dollars a DAY in revenue. It probably has doubled since then.
I would be interested in anyone that has more statistics on the cost to Florida. In this economy we can use all the jobs , sell of homes boats, and tourism we can get. Let the
Govenor know we need the embargo lifted.
I say this to all my relatives and friends, "THE EMBARGO HAS NOT WORKED, DOES NOT WORK AND NEVER WILL WORK!" As an American citizen, I object to my own government telling me I can not travel to a country we are not at war with.
The revolution in Cuba has lasted 50 years. Nonetheless, it has done been in a position to minimize the dependency Cuba maintains towards the USA.
Not long ago, the "real" currency in Cuba was the U.S. dollar. Today, it has been substituted by the Euro.
This kind of conduct does not show much independence.
Where did you hear that? I live in Spain, and spend Euros. Would you mind telling me why when I send money to my family in Cuba the government converts to US dollars THEN to CUC?
I have no clue where you got that bit of made up news , but the Euro in Cuba is NOT being used. The US dollar still reigns supreme.
I heard it in the newspapers . Unfortunately, I did not make it up. Try to send the money in Euros, and see what happens. The Spanish national currency is not the US dollar.
I DO send money in Euros. And I did not meant to infer YOU made it up. I meant whoever told you or wrote that made it up. It simply is not true. The Cuban currency is now the CUC. Actually, they have two currencies. The CUC, for tourism, and the Cuban peso, for the Cuban people. The CUC, which is the reigning currency is pegged to the dollar at 8% above whatever the dollar is worth. PLUS a 20% loan shark fee which they charge for the exchange.
The Euro plays no part in the Cuban economy other than they accept it, exchange it into US dollars, then into CUC. And in case you were wondering where I got all this, I was born there.
According to that newspaper article, the CUC is pegged to the Euro. However, since in Cuba the people believe there are only two nations in the entire world:
1) Cuba
2) the USA
and every other country in the world is the extension of the USA, you may be right about your statement.
Of course, your experience -- and not the fact that you were born in Cuba -- grants you expertise on this matter.