CAAEF Statement: US Trade/Travel Policy toward Cuba Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit STATEMENT TO THE SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOREIGN COMMERCE, AND TOURISM Regarding U.S. Trade and Travel Policy toward Cuba Presented by Delvis Fernandez Levy, President The Cuban American Alliance Education Fund, Inc. Mr. Chairman, Senator Byron Dorgan, and distinguished members of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Transportation thank you for the opportunity to present a statement by the Cuban American Alliance Education Fund (CAAEF) for your deliberations. CAAEF works within the dynamics of the U.S. Cuban Community in cooperation with more than 40 U.S. based organizations. We strive to put a human face on the ongoing hardships due to the lack of normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba and call for a reassessment of policies that are outside the best interests of the American people and carry undue harm on both Cubans and Americans. Our Council and Board members forge engagements that promote understanding and human compassion between the people of the Republic of Cuba and the United States of America. For us, Americans of Cuban descent, current policy is both a blessing and a curse. Although only 4% of the U.S. Latino community, we have reached unprecedented economic success and political representation in that community and in the U.S. in general. On the negative side, many elements in the policy encourage family divisions and create unbearable situations for both Cubans and Americans. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, our privileges extend far beyond what is offered to other exiles or immigrants. Even in post 9/11 times, Cubans reaching U.S. soil, lacking documents or with false papers, have access to a work permit, welfare assistance, U.S. residency, and in due course full citizenship rights. These privileges stand in sharp contrast to the hardships endured by millions of Latin American immigrants; living lives outside legal protection and without political representation. In Hoffman v. NLRB, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that an undocumented immigrant has no right to back pay or salary compensation even if unjustifiably fired from work. But these privileges also have a sinister side. Once in the U.S., Cuban Americans are restricted to only one visit within a twelve-month period to deal with a family emergency in Cuba. We are also limited as to the amount of and the frequency with which money may be sent to family and loved ones on the island. Parents who abandon dependents in Cuba escape prosecution, but those who do assume parental responsibilities cannot claim income tax deductions generally afforded to other immigrants with dependents in their country of origin. Today, support for Cuba-policy is fueled more by the perks and turf protection granted to hardliners in the Cuban American enclave of Miami than by what is in the wider interests of all Americans. Federal funded Radio/TV Marti has been granted millions of dollars this year alone, money which is lavished through a patronage system to pro-embargo ideologues, despite the fact that TV Marti is not seen in Cuba and Radio Marti is ignored by 95% of the population. U.S. funds also rain on other groups in the Cuban American community, rewarded for the preservation Cold War rhetoric and policies still directed towards Cuba. These rewards foster dependency on Federal funded funds with ensuing corrupting effect on community life, making it unusually difficult for Cuban Americans to speak out against a policy that is in direct contradiction to American principles of free trade and travel. But despite the barriers, winds of change are now felt at the epicenter of pro-embargo support in Miami. Notwithstanding difficulties, 300 courageous Cuban Americans, last March 28th, together with U.S. representatives and former U.S. ambassadors met in Miami to present arguments that favor engagement policies between Cubans and Americans. This meeting presaged a new era in Cuban-American discourse, where reason gives way to passion and where citizen engagement is offered as an alternative to punishment and isolation. Americans, most of them from the Cuban American community in South Florida, in quiet defiance to the travel restrictions and threats of fines and jail terms, 150,000 according to estimates from Treasury, traveled to Cuba last year. Richard Newcomb, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control acknowledged at a Senate hearing last February that a third of these travelers are in violation of U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba. In Congress, both houses have voted in favor of permitting unfettered sales of food and medicine as well as extending private financing for sales to Cuba, but their votes were thwarted in back room as a loss to democracy and to the detriment of American farmers. Other Americans participate in earnest people-to-people engagement. Last year, nearly 200 colleges and universities sent students and professors to Cuba and over 100 Cuban academics participated in conferences. Furthermore, in city and state governments, calls abound for changes in policy. In California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Illinois resolutions or sister-state relationships have been approved or are being discussed. More than twenty city-to-city relations have taken place since Mobile, Alabama back in 1993 signed a sister-city agreements with Havana; now these relationships span wide areas of the U.S. and reach the full length of Cuba. With regards to Cuba trade, for the first time in 42 years, Cuba is buying more than $70 million worth of U.S. farm products. However, this trade is severely restricted due to the travel ban along with the prohibition on private or public financing; also the trade is one-way, Cuba is not allowed to sell to the U.S. Cuba is a key potential market for U.S. exports of rice, chicken, feed grains, soybeans, wheat flour, herbicides, pesticides, farm machinery, etc. But this market is placed outside the reach of small to medium U.S. farmers due to current laws that limit travel and prohibit financing. According to a study in January by the Cuba Policy Foundation, the direct cost of the US embargo to US farmers in terms of lost trade is 1.24 billion dollars annually. Also as a result of trade restrictions, the International Trade Commission found that U.S. producers lose up to $1 billion a year in agricultural trade with Cuba. According to the head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., Dagoberto Rodriguez, the state of Minnesota alone could expect up to $130 million in trade with Cuba in the first year the embargo was lifted. The U.S. as a whole could anticipate as much as $3.9 billion in trade. Minnesota based Cargill in January shipped to Cuba about 25,000 metric tons of yellow corn grown by Midwest farmers. It was the first of several shipments under a $35 million deal between Cuba, Cargill and other U.S. trading companies within a 3 month period. Today Foreign Investment in Cuba encompasses more than 400 companies from other nations investing more than $5 billion in joint ventures in Cuba. Cuba-policy must be reassessed in light of U.S. national interests and not on the financial interests of long-term policy beneficiaries. U.S. Foreign policy should be based on hard facts and not on fabrications of ideologues bent on deceiving Congress and the American public. A policy tool placed to exact misery and suffering also promotes hatred as well as damages U.S. credibility in its just fight against terrorism. It is time to listen to voices of reason and opt for respectful engagements based on cooperation for the security and well-being of both Cubans and Americans. 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-05.31.02-18:58:51-30564