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Bustos pushes for open trade with Cuba

A member of the Congressional delegation that was on the President’s recent trip to Cuba is hopeful the trip is a step in the right direction in the normalization of trade with the country.

Illinois Representative Cheri Bustos says Cuba represents a nearly $2 billion market for American agricultural exports.

She says the current restrictions that require all agricultural transactions to be cash payments in advance need to change.  “That also takes Congressional action and is why I sponsored legislation to help address that,” she says.  “But it would have to get out of committee – which it has not done yet.”

She tells Brownfield during this trip Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would allow checkoff funds to be used in Cuba for marketing and research.

She says that will help in the interim.  “Because of the embargo we can’t spend tax payer dollars to do that right now,” she says.  “These are voluntary dollars that are committed by our growers and our producers this MOU would allow then for that money to be used in Cuba.”

Bustos says Secretary Vilsack is also asking for the funding to put 5 USDA employees in Cuba to work on research and education.

She says that move would allow the United States to “hit the ground running” when the embargo is eventually lifted.

AUDIO: Cheri Bustos, Illinois Representative