THE TTALK QUOTES 

On Global Trade & Investment

 

Published Three Times a Week By

The Global Business Dialogue, Inc.

Washington, DC   Tel: 202-463-5074

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No. 59  2015

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015      

   
Filed from Portland, Oregon  
     
Click here for Tuesday's quote from Troy Stangarone on Korea and the RMB.
MOVING FORWARD ON CUBA

"[W]ith all due respect to those Americans and to those Cubans who suffer under the dictatorship in Cuba, we feel their pain, but now, American policy should override the pain that a few feel for what is in the best interest of our great Nation."

Charles B. Rangel
January 12, 2015
CONTEXT
Congressman Charles Rangel, a Democrat, is the Dean of the New York Congressional Delegation and a former chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.  He is also a long-standing critic of U.S. policy toward Cuba and one of the first to strongly endorse President Obama's announcement last December on moving toward a more normal relationship between the United States and Cuba. 
 
On January 12, 2015, Representative Rangel talked about that announcement in a statement on the floor of the House.  He began:

"Mr. Speaker, I was in Havana, Cuba, when the President of the United States declared that he was going to relax the restrictions that we have on the embargo in Cuba, and I tell you that the people in Havana rejoiced.  In the streets of Havana they said there were two basic things they liked about America: one was American movies, and the second was everything else."

Today's quote is from the concluding sentence of that same floor statement.

As the President said on December 17, part of the process of normalization rests with Congress.  "The embargo that's been imposed for decades is now codified in legislation.  .....  I look forward to engaging Congress in an honest and serious debate about lifting the embargo."

Mr. Rangel's statement highlighted here was given on a Monday.  On the following Friday, January 16, he introduced the "Free Trade with Cuba Act," H.R. 403, "a bill to lift the trade embargo on Cuba and for other purposes."

COMMENT
The best website for tracking legislation is www.congress.gov.  Type in "Cuba" there and some 64 bills will pop up.  We have no idea which one will become the vehicle for moving toward a new, embargo-free relationship with Cuba.  We have chosen to highlight Mr. Rangel's bill because it was one of the first, because he was an early critic of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, one of the more troublesome contributions to the U.S. embargo against Cuba, and because his bill already has some 29 cosponsors.  At present, they are all Democrats.  That is a little misleading in that there are Republicans who strongly favor more trade with Cuba.  But those 29 span the country, from New York to California and from Washington, DC, to the Pacific Northwest. The two cosponsors from the Northwest are Rep. Jim McDermott from Washington State and Rep. Earl Blumenauer from Oregon.

Over the next few weeks, we expect to highlight more of the Cuba bills in Congress and more of the background on the issues as we prepare for GBD's September 10 event on Cuba. With respect to Mr. Rangel's bill, the summary of it from the Congressional Research Service explains that it would, among other things, repeal:

"(1) the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, (2) the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996, (3) the prohibition under the Food Security Act of 1985 against allocation of the annual sugar quota to any country unless its officials verify that it does not import for reexport to the United States any sugar produced in Cuba, and (4) the prohibition under the Department of Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999 on transactions or payments respecting certain U.S. intellectual property."

If you are wondering where to begin your work on the challenges to normalizing relations - especially trade relations - between the United States and Cuba, this list from the Rangel bill wouldn't be a bad place to start.
RELATED EVENT
On September 10, 2015, GBD will host a discussion of some of these issues. Cuba, the United States, and the Road to MFN will focus on Congressional and private sector concerns over America's current relationship with Cuba and on the road head.  Click the title link for registration options.  This program will be held at the National Press Club in Washington on the morning of September 10, and a flyer with full detail will be published next week. 
SOURCES & LINKS
I was in Havana is a link to the page from the Congressional Record of January 12, 2015, with Congressman Rangel's floor statement in reaction to the President December announcement.  This statement was the source for today's featured quote.

Isolation Has Not Worked takes you to the text of President Obama's White House statement on December 17, 2014, in which he outlines the steps for normalizing the relationship between the United States and Cuba.

Free Trade With Cuba Act is a link to the entry for this bill on www.congress.gov.
Note To Press
Unless otherwise attributed, the opinions expressed in the Comment Section of this entry are those of R. K. Morris, president, The Global Business Dialogue.  They are personal views.  The Global Business Dialogue does not express collective positions or opinions.
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