U.S. Farm Group to Sell $8 Million in Products to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Farm Group to Sell $8 Million in Products to Cuba
By Anita Snow Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 30, 2003


HAVANA (AP) - A leading U.S. farm cooperative announced Tuesday it would sell another $8 million in corn and soy to Cuba, while Iowa officials said they'd work to increase sales of their state's agricultural goods to the communist island.

"We strongly support lowering the trade restrictions both ways," said Chris Aberle, director of domestic sales for the Iowa-based cooperative FC Stone.

The direct sales of American farm products to Cuba is a rare exception to more than four decades of U.S. trade sanctions against the Caribbean island.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Aberle and Cuban food important officials signed a contract for FC Stone to sell $8 million of corn and soy to Cuba, bringing to $33 million the value of food products that cooperative has sold the island since late 2001. (snip/...)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGAXJZXJ8LD.html


(HAVANA, Cuba, September 14, 2003) - From left: Senator Max Baucus; Pedro Alvarez, Cuba's top importing official; and Rep. Denny Rehberg celebrate after signing an historic $10 million agriculture sale to Cuba.
http://www.baucus.senate.gov/cuba.html

[Osolomia]

1. Dems have about 48 hours left

to get there act together on this issue before Bush announces his new Cuba policy. Continue to ignore the bipartisan majority and Dems have no one to blame but themselves for the consequences.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. I guess Ashcroft is going to have to detain those radical farmers...

...for aiding international terrorism.

Sure, why not?

[Osolomia]

3. Stll no sign of intelligent life among the Dems, meanwhile

as but one of many examples all across the country:

Wednesday, October 1, 2003
Editorial: Cuban trade embargo not worth free-market cost

Politics often gets in the way of sound principle, as in the case of the United States' trade embargo against Cuba.

The principle of free trade has given way to the politics of a bygone era, in which the United States used economic sanctions to fight communism near our shores.

The U.S. trade embargo should be lifted. It should have been lifted long ago. It has grown so unpopular that politicians of all stripes oppose it.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs acknowledged to a business group downstate recently that opposition to lifting the embargo is weakening in Congress.

More...
http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/100103/opi_cubantrade.shtml

[Say_What]

4. Gonna press congress...

From the article:

...They also said they would press members of U.S. Congress to eliminate trade sanctions on Cuba and open up the market to American - especially Iowan - business.

"We look forward to trading more with Cuba," said Iowa State Senator Nancy Boettger. "As an Iowan, and as a farmer myself, we see food production as humanitarian."

"This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a long-term relationship and a beginning to the end of the restrictions on trade with Cuba," said Iowa State Sen. Matt McCoy.

[Osolomia]

5. Senator Boettger is a Republican!!!

While even Republicans are saying "we see food production as humanitarian" where do the 2004 Democratic candidates stand on this embargo? Dems will have to speak up louder if they expect to be heard over Repubs like this imho!

[Say_What]

6. Where do the Dem candidates stand on the embargo??

With Bush, of course!! One party two names. Candidates (Dean, Kerry,) flip-floped on Cuba faster than pancakes on a griddle. Lieberman, Graham, and Gephardt are high on the CANF's payroll and have been forever.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/cubareport/congressreceipts.asp

[Osolomia]

7. Given the choice between one party with two names

I for one would vote for the more progressive candidate regardless of the label attached and I suspect I'm not alone.

[joshcryer]

8. A comment.

Isn't it logical to give more money to the party more likely to do what you don't want them to do?

It honestly doesn't surprise me that the democrats get and got more money from these groups. The democrats are potentially a bigger threat, and thus, require more money.

Note, quite obviously, that the contributions went to democrats during the early Clinton years... it equalled out towards the end when Clinton's power was diluted by more Republican electives.

I think the Democrat bashing is going a wee bit too far. You'd be just as well to bash Republicans on this issue; we live in a plutocracy, complaining in this context achieves nothing (except pushes people away).

Whoever is in power will get more money. That simple, really.

Be glad the exile community in general seems to be losing its grip, as the donations are decreasing over time (ie, they are themselves losing their own constituants).

[Say_What]

10. Pols pandering to anti-Cuba fanatics has been happening

since JFKs time. We're now watching it with Dean, Kerry, Lieberman (who the CANF put in office to oust his opponent who was anti-embargo), Graham, etc., etc. Take the Fanjul brothers for instance, Florida's sugar barons. The Fanjul's aren't even US citizens and yet they control US politics. One gives to the dems the other to the repukes.

The sorry state of politics in Amerika is that ALL pols are bought-and-paid for. They stopped representing you and I decades ago. Everyone on the planet knows that we have a one party two name political system owned by the corps--the only ones who DON'T know it are 'muriKans with BLINKERS ON. The joke's on us--sad as that is.

<clips>

The Fanjul family merits special mention, although their political donations have not been included in the tabulations of money coming from the Cuban-American community (with the exception of one contribution to the Free Cuba PAC). The renowned sugar barons of the Flo-Sun Corporation, the four Fanjul brothers have a Florida-based empire that dwarfs even the U.S. Sugar Corporation. Alfonso ("Alfie"), Jose ("Pepe"), Alexander, and Andres Fanjul are Cuban-American descendants of the wealthy Gomez-Mena family of Cuba, which controlled much of the American-dominated sugar industry in Cuba until Fidel Castro seized power. The family has given slightly less than $900,000 in political donations since 1989, which would have made them the top Cuban-American contributors. However, during that time only a single donation _ from Alfie in 2000, went to the Free Cuba PAC, and likely most of their money can be considered to be serving their sugar interests. The sugar industry benefits from a valuable federal price-support program, and the Fanjul's political efforts are weighted heavily toward keeping it in place. They have also been preoccupied with environmentalists' concerns related to the damage their industry is causing to the Florida Everglades. Therefore it is difficult to determine what portion of their giving can be considered related to Cuban issues, even though it is certain that they are a factor in the community and the politics involved. Even their substantial contributions to the Cuban-American members of the Florida congressional delegation - Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart - cannot be considered solely related to the representatives' staunch support for the anti-Castro movement. The duo have also been supportive in the past of the Fanjul's sugar concerns and are important allies in the family's general non-Cuban interests.

The significance of the Fanjul's influence on political affairs relating to Cuba must be taken seriously, however. Alfie Fanjul is a lifelong Democrat and served as co-chairman of Bill Clinton's Florida campaign in 1992. His fundraising efforts during that race were prodigious. After Clinton was elected, Alfie was invited to attend the President-elect's "economic summit" in Little Rock. He was given a seat only three spots from Clinton and Vice President-elect Al Gore. Next to him was future Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, and Alfie later made an official appearance with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit. On the other side of the aisle, Alfie's brother, Jose "Pepe" Fanjul, covered the Republicans. Pepe was vice chairman of the Bush-Quayle finance committee during the 1988 campaign. That year he was also a member of "Team 100", a select group of donors who gave $100,000 or more to the Republican Party. He was a guest at the White House in 1990, and in 1996 he joined the finance committee of Senator Bob Dole's presidential campaign. Alfie, Pepe and the rest of the family have ultimately balanced each other's spending by giving 34 percent to the GOP and 32 percent to Democrats. The remainder of the Fanjul contributions went mainly to sugar related PACs. With this level of financial generosity and political clout, there can be no doubt that the Fanjuls' Cuba-related opinions have not fallen on deaf ears in Washington, D.C.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/cubareport/players.asp

---

<clips>

How foreigners fuel US anti-Cuba policy

... In her report, Ms Thomas says that few foreign citizens play a more active role in seeking to influence U.S. foreign policy than the Bermuda-based Bacardi Martini rum company and sugar barons Alfonso and Jose Fanjul.

The Cuban-born brothers, better known as Alfy (a Democrat) and Pepe (a Republican), are Spanish citizens but have homes in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Of the $1.8 million contributed between 1999 and 2002, the Fanjul brothers; their corporation, Flo-Sun Sugar; and Bacardi contributed $1.34 million, or 71 percent of the total.

"The debate on this delicate and important issue is being coloured by people who can't even vote in this country," Ms. Thomas says. She noted that the contributions also serve to help them gain access to lobby for federal price subsidies.

http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/cubasi_article.asp?ArticleID=10

[Judi Lynn]

9. Taking a series of many little steps

sounds like the way REAL progress is made, after all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Small Biz Barges into Cuba
Get this: Fidel Castro hates dissent, yet he appears to like American entrepreneurs.

From: Inc. Magazine, October 2003 | Page 24 By: Anton Piëch Photographs by: Adalberto Roque/AFP
A small South Carolina company has done something no American business has in over 40 years--sailed a U.S.-registered barge into Havana. Previously, the few American companies that shipped goods to Cuba chartered foreign vessels.

Maybank Shipping began cultivating a relationship with Cuba's import agency three years ago. Then last year, Cuba licensed a large shipper called Crowley, headquartered in Oakland, Calif., to import goods on foreign vessels. Turner Fabian, Maybank's vice president of operations, suspects the Cuban authorities didn't want to be too reliant on Crowley, so they eagerly granted a second license to Maybank, even though its fleet sails under the U.S. flag.

The barge operator, based in Charleston, completed its first trip in July and expects to return once a month for at least a year. Shipments of lumber, newsprint, and food products should generate about a third of the company's revenue, Fabian says. So far, Maybank has encountered no customs difficulties. Havana port workers have unloaded cargo with brisk efficiency. The Cubans even raised Old Glory above a fort in the harbor to welcome Maybank. "It gave me the chills," Fabian says. (snip/...)

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20031001/trade.html