A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill that would lift the embargo on Cuba to facilitate trade while maintaining other sanctions on the Cuban government.
The Freedom to Export to Cuba Act was introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
A press release on Klobuchar’s website said the legislation would “eliminate legal barriers preventing Americans from doing business in Cuba and create new economic opportunities by boosting US exports and allowing Cubans greater access to American goods.”
The press release said the bill would repeal “key provisions of existing laws that block Americans from doing business in Cuba, but keeps in place laws that address human rights or property claims against the Cuban government.”
The embargo on Cuba has been in place for over 60 years and is a prime example of how US sanctions don’t achieve their stated purpose as the Cuban government has not changed, but the people of Cuba have suffered from the embargo. The bill would repeal the original 1961 authorization that established the trade embargo.
During the Obama administration, the US took some steps toward normalization with Ciba, but they were all reversed by the Trump administration. President Biden eased some minor restrictions but also increased sanctions on Cuban government officials and agencies.
In a statement on the bill, Sen. Klobuchar called for a fundamental change to the US policy toward Cuba. “By ending the trade embargo with Cuba once and for all, our bipartisan legislation will turn the page on the failed policy of isolation while creating a new export market and generating economic opportunities for American businesses,” she said.
Sen. Moran said the bill should be passed to give American farmers access to the Cuban market. “The unilateral trade embargo on Cuba blocks our own farmers, ranchers and manufacturers from selling into a market only 90 miles from our shoreline, while foreign competitors benefit at our expense,” he said.
It’s about bloody time!!!
When you are low on new customers, it’s time to play nice with the old adversaries.
The rest of the western hemisphere should declare an embargo on the US until it starts behaving like a normal country.
Not going to happen. Nice gesture, though.
This will pass when pigs fly and bears don’t shit in the woods NFC=no f—–g chance.
Sadly true
Well, when the embargo is lifted, it will certainly be proof to the rest of the world that a Stalinist/communist regime wasn’t self sufficient as communist doctrine says would happen when a nation abandons capitalism. Wash./the corps. see money to be made there, that’s the only reason it’s being lifted; not for humanitarian reasons.