U.S. Taxpayers Relieved by Embargo

BY: CAPITOL HILL CUBANS


November 29, 2010


Contrary to what the farm bureaus would have you believe, U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba haven't suffered due to U.S. law and policy.

They've suffered because the Castro regime wants U.S. taxpayers to subsidize them.

From The New York Times article, "Cuba-Texas Trade Is Languishing in Poor Economy":

Countries like Venezuela, China, Brazil and Vietnam offer more trade incentives to the Cuban government than the private sector in the United States does, said John S. Kavulich, a senior policy adviser with the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council Inc., a nonprofit based in Washington that deals directly with the Cuban government. Cuba is "focusing on countries that will give them substantial government credits that they know they won't have to pay back," Mr. Kavulich said.

According to the economic council's latest report, those countries provide more "favorable payment terms and less publicity when those payment terms are not honored," which is expected given the lack of foreign investment.

"There is absolutely no incentive for the government of Raúl Castro to seek any re-engagement with the United States," Mr. Kavulich said, "because any re-engagement with the United States has one guarantee, and that is uncertainty."