Farmers’ Plight May Alter Fortunes of Cuba Embargo

A major pillar of U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere is teetering in Congress as a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers makes a major push to relax the economic embargo of Cuba that has ostracized the communist nation for four decades.

Republican congressional leaders scrambled Tuesday to find a way to preserve the long-standing trade embargo against Fidel Castro’s government, once a sacred cow embraced by members of both political parties.

But the embargo has lost so much backing in Congress that legislation to allow the sale of food and medicine to Cuba appears to have majority support in the House and Senate for the first time. Although GOP leaders may still block the threat to the embargo through procedural means, the measure represents the toughest test yet for a policy that critics say is an anachronism of the Cold War.

“The votes are there to pass it,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who supports easing the embargo. “But if the opponents dig in, it will be difficult.”

Critics said that the embargo’s outdated nature has been underscored by arguments being used by proponents of expanded trade rights for China, which is scheduled for a House vote today. These critics contended that, if the United States decides to take that step to promote democracy in the world’s largest communist country, it should do the same for Cuba.

The Cuban initiative has gotten fresh momentum from peculiar political and economic forces buffeting some lawmakers in this election year. Many of those backing the bill are Republicans in tight reelection contests in the Farm Belt, where falling prices for agricultural commodities have increased demand for new export markets.

The political dynamics also have been reshaped by the emotion-laden Elian Gonzalez custody case. Some lawmakers said that there may be less sympathy for the Cuban American community--which largely opposes allowing more trade with Cuba--because it took such a militant stand against letting the 6-year-old Cuban castaway be reunited with his father.

But the Gonzalez imbroglio may also cut the other way and increase the determination of anti-Castro forces to keep the embargo intact.

Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who vehemently opposes the move to open agricultural trade with Cuba, pledged: “We’re going to do everything we can to stop it.”

The issue now before Congress is a proposal to relax the embargo on trade with Cuba to allow the sale of food and medicine. The measure, which has been attached to House and Senate versions of the annual agriculture appropriation bill, also would allow food and medicine exports to four other pariah nations: Iran, Libya, North Korea and Sudan.

Although changes in trade policy toward the other countries also may generate opposition, the focus of controversy is Cuba. The trade embargo against the island nation was put in place shortly after Castro took power in 1959.

Proponents of easing the embargo said that humanitarian goods, such as food and medicine, should not be used as weapons of foreign policy.

“It is not a moral policy, in my judgment, to take aim at a dictator and instead hit the sick and the poor and the hungry,” said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.).

Others argued that including food in economic sanctions hurts U.S. farmers, who have suffered economically in recent years, even as most other business sectors have prospered.

“A new consensus is emerging on the issue of food and medicine sanctions,” said Rep. George R. Nethercutt Jr. (R-Wash.), chief sponsor of the House measure to relax the embargo. “My amendment is about freedom--freedom for our farmers to market and the promotion of freedom through new market opportunities.”

Nethercutt, facing a tough reelection campaign in part because he rescinded a term-limits pledge, estimated that the bill would open food markets worth $7 billion a year to U.S. farmers, including $1 billion in Cuba alone.

And he and other proponents argued that it is hypocritical to support expanding trade to China while continuing to block food and medicine sales to Cuba.

“People are scratching their heads saying, ‘Let me get this straight: It’s OK to trade with communist China but not with communist Cuba,’ ” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

But those opposed to easing the embargo said that there is a big difference between the two countries: Cuba has shown far less willingness than China to consider economic reforms.

“China is looking forward to the opportunity to engage in international commerce, and I think they’re willing to demonstrate the reforms in their own system necessary to accommodate that,” said House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). “You don’t see that in Cuba. And Cuba is just a very stubborn, unwilling place.”

Added Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, a leading Democratic ally of Cuban Americans: “To begin commerce with Cuba is for the U.S. to be the first to blink.”

But support for the current strict embargo began to erode last year when an amendment to allow sales of food and medicine to Cuba passed the Senate on a whopping 70-28 vote. A companion measure offered by Nethercutt was rejected by the House Appropriations Committee, 28 to 24.

Nethercutt tried again this year and the committee earlier this month approved the bill, 35 to 24, despite fierce opposition from one of the House’s most powerful lawmakers, Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Some supporters of Nethercutt’s measure said that the tide turned on the issue in part because of continuing problems in the farm economy. Others said that the debate appears to represent the first sign that the Cuban American community’s role in the Elian Gonzalez case has hurt its clout in Congress.

“I think the rest of the country is perhaps thinking, ‘Why should Florida, with all due respect, set the policy for the rest of the country,’ ” said Nethercutt.

With Nethercutt saying that he has a solid majority of the House behind him, GOP leaders are looking for a way to kill his amendment through procedural maneuvers or to find a compromise to persuade him to back off. They may ask him to offer it to another bill less likely to become law, or suggest a compromise that would ease the embargo on the other rogue countries but not Cuba.

An aide to Nethercutt said that such compromises might be acceptable. But it is not clear that a provision excluding Cuba would be approved by the full House or Senate.

Democrats, meanwhile, warned that farm-state Republicans might pay a political price if they back down from this effort. Among the leading Senate sponsors are two of the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection this year--Sens. John Ashcroft of Missouri and Slade Gorton of Washington.