U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says it’s time for the U.S. to engage with Cuban markets. But as Elle (Ellie) Moxley reports for Harvest Public Media, some Republican leaders remain skeptical.
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Vilsack, who was in metro Kansas City Tuesday, says increasing U.S. exports to Cuba could help Midwest farmers.
“The reality is we used to do roughly $600 million of business in that country. It’s about a $1.7 billion dollar market. Wheat is certainly one area, poultry is another area, soybeans is another area.”
But while Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas says he’ll schedule a hearing on Cuba, he’s urging caution.
“This is a very repressive regime. Each time we took a commodity group, we would run into these state-owned enterprises, and you couldn’t get credit arranged, you couldn’t get a lot of things set up like you normally do in a trade situation with a friendly country.”
Vilsack says the currency protections some in Congress want to include in a trade agreement with Cuba aren’t usually the focus of such talks. ####