USAgNet - March 15, 2010
U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, and Maria Cantwell of Washington last week said relaxing restrictions on agricultural trade with Cuba is key to creating jobs and expanding exports from the U.S. agricultural sector.
In a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, the senators urged Baucus to take up the Promoting American Agricultural and Medical Exports to Cuba Act of 2009 as quickly as possible. Both Lincoln and Cantwell are co-sponsors of the legislation, and members of the Finance Committee.
"As we try to find new markets for our exports, we don't have to search further than 90 miles from our own shores. No country is better situated to take advantage of the consumer demand in Cuba than the United States, and no sector can expand our participation in that market more quickly and seamlessly than our agricultural sector,"Lincoln said.
Cantwell added that expanding U.S. trade in countries such as neighboring Cuba will contribute to economic growth and job creation here in the United States.
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