Posted on 02/25/2009 1:36:54 PM PST by Baladas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. restrictions on trade with Cuba and family travel to the island would be eased under legislation passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday but the changes could encounter trouble in the Senate.
Supporters hope congressional action will be the first step toward reviewing and possibly reversing the decades-old U.S. policy of shunning Cuba. Tucked into a larger spending bill, most of the changes would expire on September 30 unless there is a move to extend them by Congress or President Barack Obama.
Obama has made clear he favors relaxing limits on family travel and cash remittances by Cuban Americans to Cuba, although he has said the U.S. trade embargo against that country should stay in place to press for democratic reforms.
The legislation approved by the House does not lift the overall embargo. But it would prohibit the Treasury Department from enforcing Bush administration rules requiring payment of cash in advance for agricultural sales to Cuba.
Analysts believe that U.S. rice sales to Cuba will soar if the provision becomes law. Rice sales declined every year after the cash-in-advance rules were imposed in 2005, because Cuba could turn to Vietnam -- a country with which it has close ties -- for rice on easier terms.
The House-passed legislation also would provide for general travel licenses for travel to and from Cuba for marketing and selling agricultural products. And it would allow Americans with relatives in Cuba to travel there more frequently and for longer periods of time.
But the measure must pass the Senate before becoming law, and Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez, a Cuban-American, opposes the changes, an aide said. Martinez could try to use Senate procedural hurdles to stop the bill.
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(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Actually, Mel may have found his brain on this one....
Just like with Communist China...whenever you do trade or give special benefits to a Communist country....you end up subsidizing the Communist Party of that country.
Trade and benefits to Communist countries is really nothing more than being a Communist
This bogus administration sure works fast. One day there’s a report on something.... the next day they’re pushing the law through.
Missing from the article is the reason for the embargo in the first place.
And now we will float loans to Cuba? We deliver rice, then they pay “when they can”?
Nah...we'll do it like Venezuela. Hugo Chavez (Fidel Castro Jr.) sends oil to Cuba and Cuba sends doctors to Venezuela. Then after the Cuban doctors kill a few patients, they get sent back.
Obama, being a fellow traveler, will send Cuba food and Cuba will probably run our shiny new Hillary-Care Program.
Yep
attach this crap to an omnibus spending bill that nearly every politician needs passed for funding of some nonsense in his or her district.
And as for Mel Martinez? Hope he get shingles and they last forever even in to the grave.
FYI
The new Anheuser-Busch InBev has a 45% share of the Cuban market.
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