>Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit > > >UNITED STATES: Pressure grows to lift blockade against Cuba > >The US Senate's Appropriations Committee voted on May 9 to lift the embargo >on sales of food and medicine to Cuba. Supported by both houses of Congress, >the move now has an excellent chance of becoming law when the next fiscal >year starts on October 1. > >The House Ways and Means Committee has also requested a study be done of the >blockade, the first-ever such investigation of its impact on Cuba or the US >itself. The US International Trade Commission's report is expected to be >tabled by February and will likely increase pressure for an end to the >blockade altogether. > >The Clinton administration decided to lift the ban on sales of food and >medicine to Iran, Libya and Sudan last year but was barred from including >Cuba by the embargo-tightening Helms-Burton Act. > >Jesse Helms, the powerful chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations >Committee, dropped his opposition to easing parts of the 40-year-old embargo >on Cuba in March. > >The US economic blockade of Cuba has been championed for years by right-wing >Cuban emigres in Florida, who see it as a means to overthrow Cuba's >revolutionary government. > >The Senate Appropriations Committee's decision is another blow to them, >already smarting at US federal action on April 22 to return six-year-old >Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez to his father. Elian had been held captive by Cuban >emigres in Miami since December. > >The lifting of food and medicine sanctions would save Cuba millions of >dollars in transport costs. It presently buys 700,000 tonnes of wheat a >year, mainly from Europe and Canada. > >Farm groups and agribusinesses are behind the move to ease the blockade. >They're keen to remove all barriers to food exports, so as to move a glut of >grain that has depressed commodity prices for the past three years. > >US farmers have been pressing for the past two years for a lifting of the >embargo, which has kept them out of Cuba's bulk food import market, valued >at US$700 million in 1999. Rice farmers in the Mississippi delta are also >keen to return to a market they traditionally supplied before the embargo >began, especially as a record crop last year has caused prices to drop. Cuba >imports more than 272,000 tonnes a year of rice, mostly from Vietnam and >China. > >A US farmer delegation from the Texas Farm Bureau visited Cuba in late April >to discuss trade openings. The president of the US Chamber of Commerce >visited Cuba last year and afterwards called for an end to the embargo. > >US pharmaceutical and medical companies are also lobbying hard for an end to >the blockade, eyeing a health care market they estimate as being worth US$1 >billion a year. US medical equipment manufacturers held their first trade >fair in Cuba for forty years in January. > >US analysts estimate that access to Cuban food and tourism markets would >allow potential annual exports of US$3-4 billion within three to five >years. > >Green Left Weekly #406, May 24, 2000 >Correspondence and hard copy subscription inquiries: >glw @ greenleft.org.au or http:// www. greenleft.org.au > >================================================================= > 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >================================================================= > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations. >Remember the good 'ol days >http://click.egroups.com/1/4053/0/_/30563/_/959245326/ >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Cuba SI - Imperialism NO! >Information and discussion about Cuba. >Socialism or death! Patria o muerte! Venceremos! >http://www.egroups.com/group/cubasi > >Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Change Delivery Options: http://www.egroups.com/mygroups > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
