WASHINGTON (EFE).—The U.S. Treasury
Department should not impose new restrictions on
agricultural trade with Cuba or resort to potential
delaying tactics in confirming senior positions in
that ministry, according to an influential
Democratic leader today.
Senator Max Baucus, the highest-ranking
Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has issued
that warning at a time when the Office for Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC) is studying new restrictions
on sales of agricultural goods to the island.
For Baucus, whose state of Montana
has strong agricultural interests, those possible
changes could significantly affect the sale of
agricultural produce to Cuba.
A federal law of 2000 allows the
sale of those goods if they are paid for in cash and
in advance, and the Havana government has no right
to credit facilities and cannot use its shipping to
transport the cargo.
Apart from the purchase of U.S.
goods, the act has no reciprocal benefit for Cuba,
because the island cannot export to the United
States.
In addition, U.S. companies need a
special license for these sales.
Thanks to that legislation, U.S.
companies have sold some $800 million worth of
agricultural goods to the island, always on the
condition of receiving the payment in advance.
An anonymous source from Baucus’
office informed EFE that the Democratic senator has
received many calls from U.S. agricultural
enterprises complaining that the OFAC appears to
have instructed U.S. banks to freeze Cuban payments
to them.
The attempt to obstruct legal trade
after three years of it having functioned without
incident has taken this government’s dangerous
fixation on Cuba to a totally new level, Baucus
stated in a communiqué.
He affirmed that he will not sit
back with his arms folded if the Treasury Department
tries to modify the legislation that Congress
approved to facilitate trade with Cuba, adding that
he will block appointments in the Treasury
Department "until this has been resolved."
