Engage Cuba Coalition Seeks End To Embargo
Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward
TERRY SIMMONS
JONESBORO, ARK.
Agricultural and political leaders from across Arkansas gathered at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock yesterday to launch an initiative to end the U.S. travel and trade embargo on Cuba. The Engage Cuba Coalition hopes to end the 55-year ban, which Engage Cuba President James Williams described as “a failed policy.”
“Every poll that has come out over the last 15 months shows that between 70 and 80 percent of the American people from all walks of life: Republican, Democrat – from business, to rice farmers, to academia; from Cuban Americans, to other Latino groups – all support a new approach with Cuba.”
Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward said that the Engage Cuba Coalition is “an example of how people can work together across industries to show broad support for our relationship with Cuba and normalizing trade to open up those opportunities for Arkansas agriculture.”
Cuba lies 90 miles from the United States and was historically a large importer of U.S. rice and other agricultural products before the embargo was put in place in the early 1960s. Today Cuba is forced to import lower quality rice from Asian countries such as Vietnam, which is more than 11,000 miles from the island nation.
“Cuba is one of the most important markets that should be available to American farmers,” said Johnny Sullivan of Producers Rice Mill in Stuttgart, Arkansas. “I traveled to Cuba last week and had the opportunity to see face-to-face the Cuban people’s reaction to the potential of having U.S. rice back in the market.”
Agriculture is the number one industry in Arkansas, which produces more than half of the U.S. rice crop every year and is the largest poultry producing state. Officials stated that both of these products are in-demand in Cuba.
USA Rice Chairman Dow Brantley said, “USA Rice is proud to co-launch the Engage Cuba Arkansas State Council to mobilize grassroots support and advocate for a change in policy. Bringing Arkansas rice to Cuba is key to creating jobs, boosting wages, and securing the long term future for the state’s agriculture industry.” ∆
TERRY SIMMONS: Contributing Editor/Farm Director at Ag Watch Network