Bush Heads for Clash with Congress on Cuba Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Financial Times (London) - May 22, 2002 Bush heads for Congress clash on Cuba by Edward Alden Washington, May 22--President George W.Bush's decision to maintain an embargo on trade with Cuba has set up a showdown with the US Congress, where a strong majority of legislators favours some easing of restrictions. Democratic senators said yesterday the Bush administration was swimming against a tide of congressional and public opinion in standing fast behind the 40-year-old economic sanctions on Cuba. "This policy cannot stand the scrutiny," said Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. Mr Bush said the US would do nothing to lift trade restrictions unless Cuba allowed free elections and began to introduce an open market economy. On Monday he also warned he was prepared to veto congressional efforts to ease the embargo before such conditions are met. Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere, reinforced that message in his first appearance before Congress yesterday, saying "Cuba continues to carry out its aggressive policies against the US and its people" and represents a threat to US national security. The administration is hoping to counter such sentiment by linking its policy on Cuba to the larger war on terrorism. Mr Reich yesterday repeated US accusations that Cuba had the research and development capabilities to support a biological weapons programme, and said Cuba had transferred sensitive dual-use technologies to Iran and other countries on US terrorist lists. The Cuban-born Mr Reich said that whenever the regime of Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader, had earned excess hard currency through foreign trade, "he has used it in many cases to undermine US interests and to promote terrorism around the world". The president's veto threat is likely to be tested in the near future. Byron Dorgan, a Democratic senator from the wheat state of North Dakota, said yesterday that he would push ahead with proposals to allow US banks to begin financing agricultural sales to Cuba. That plan is backed by influential US farm groups, which think that the Cuban market could be worth as much as Dollars 1bn annually to US farmers. Congress approved agri-cultural sales to Cuba in 2000, and since that time Cuba has used its scarce hard currency to buy about Dollars 100m worth of US goods. The financing proposal was dropped from the farm bill last month despite a 273-143 vote in the House of Representatives favouring the measure and similar support in the Senate. Mr Dorgan said yesterday he would look for other avenues, including forthcoming appropriations bills. Congressional opponents of the administration's Cuba policy point not only to business and farm groups agitating for greater trade, but to polls showing a majority of Americans favour an end to the embargo, while two-thirds want an end to the ban on travel to Cuba. source - JosePertierra@aol.com ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-05.22.02-23:30:23-7420