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North Dakota Lands Cuban Grain Deals - Who Will Benefit?*** HAVANA (AP) - Members of a North Dakota delegation hoping to sell more of their state's grain to communist Cuba said Tuesday they were already working on new sales contracts during the first full day of their trade mission. "We are looking to get some free time today so we can call and check on some prices," North Dakota Farm Bureau President Eric Aasmundstad said as the group toured a wheat milling plant. "That's how far along we are," he said, declining to provide specifics until contracts were signed.

"Our discussions have gone very well and we are hopeful that we will be leaving here with some good contracts," added Gov. John Hoeven, who with Aasmundstad is heading the four-mission that began Monday. Delegation members said they were not pushing for a meeting with President Fidel Castro and are instead focusing on doing as much business as possible before they return home on Thursday. The visit by Hoeven comes as American farm representatives press Congress to expand a 2-year-old law allowing direct sales of food to the island, an exception to sanctions prohibiting most trade with the island.

Among measures now being considered by U.S. lawmakers is one that would allow financing for American food sales to Cuba - now conducted on a cash basis. Pedro Alvarez, president of the Cuban food import concern Alimport, said Monday his county could buy as much as 60 to 70 percent of all imported food from the United States if financing were allowed. ***

Cuba is hardly the menace that china is, how about Indonesia, Malaysia, or saudi arabia? The excuse for turning a blind eye towards these and other evil doers is that a capitalistic economy will eventually result in a democratic process, so why not cuba and why not let farmers make a dollar instead of handing it to the richest of them and call it the farm bill?