Cuba
USDA wants an office in Cuba
Fourteen months after President Obama began to normalize relations with Cuba, the USDA is asking for money to open an office in Cuba. "The goal is to alert Congress there is an expanded trade opportunity available with Cuba," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters.
U.S. relaxes rules on pesticide sales to Cuba
The Obama administration announced new rules, effective today, to expand travel and trade with Cuba, including sales of agricultural herbicides, insecticides and pesticides. The revisions do not change the requirement for Cuba to pay cash in advance for U.S. food and agricultural exports.
Obama to Congress: Pass TPP, end Cuba embargo
The United States can show its leadership in the world and reap benefits for itself through cooperative action, President Obama said in his final State of the Union speech. During the hour-long address, he asked Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific free-trade agreement and to end the half-century trade embargo on Cuba.
Vilsack: U.S. ag exports could be ‘very competitive’ in Cuba
At the end of the first official USDA visit to Cuba since 1961, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said U.S. farm and food products could gain a significant share of the island's $2 billion food-import market, reports the Des Moines Register.
First USDA visit to Cuba since 1961
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is due to arrive in Havana on Wednesday, leading the first official USDA visit to Cuba in half a century as part of the administration's decision to normalize relations with the nation.
Enormous potential in Cuba, ag trade is not a one-way street
World Food Prize laureate Pedro Sanchez, a soils scientist, says Cuba "could be a very good market" for U.S. food companies, but adds that "it's not a one-way situation." In an interview with UC Food Observer, Sanchez said, "America has so much to learn from Cuba. Some of the agricultural techniques used in Cuba may benefit our food system."
Sizable obstacles for U.S. farm exports to Cuba
U.S. ag exporters face barriers to becoming a major food supplier to Cuba despite the restoration of diplomatic relations, said the head of the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. In testimony to a House Foreign Relations subcommittee, administrator Phil Karsting said Cuba imports more than $2 billion a year in food. The U.S. share was $287 million in 2014, according to the Commerce Department, less than half of the total for 2008.
Future of U.S.-Cuba ag and food trade is filled with “ifs”
Larger U.S. food and ag exports to Cuba are not assured despite President Obama's decision to normalize diplomatic relations and take steps to facilitate the sales, which must be made on the basis of cash in advance, say USDA economists.
Embassy pact fuels hope for end of U.S. embargo on Cuba
A U.S. agricultural coalition said it hoped for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba now that the nations agreed to re-open embassies in each other's capital.
Florida ag sees competitor where US ag sees Cuban market
While U.S. farm groups see Cuba as a natural, nearby market for exports, growers in Florida worry that Cuba will be a competitor in agriculture, says the Miami Herald. Janell Hendren of the Florida Farm Bureau told the Herald, "You can't lift the [trade] embargo without increasing imports from Cuba to the United States. And we are very concerned with imports." Agricultural economist William Messina at U-Florida says Cuba and Florida grow many of the same products - sugar, citrus, vegetables, tropical fruit and fish.
What can Cuba sell U.S.? Tobacco, seafood, produce
The U.S. farm sector usually discusses Cuba in terms of possible growth in sales to a nearby market, although trade is limited by the trade embargo enacted during the Cold War.
U.S. ag-trade delegation begins meetings in Cuba
"The most important U.S. agricultural delegation to visit Cuba in more than a decade" hopes to find business partners and is urging an end to the decades-old trade embargo, says Reuters.
U.S. allows imports from private businesses in Cuba
The Obama administration "opened the door for Cuba's small-business community to export goods and services" to U.S. customers, says Politico.
Cuba trade embargo would end under Senate bill
Six senators introduced a bill, dubbed the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act, to end the decades-old trade embargo with Cuba. "It is time to turn the page on our Cuba policy," said lead sponsor Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
U.S. ag sales to Cuba are smallest in 12 years
U.S. food and agricultural exports to Cuba totaled $291 million in 2014, the smallest tally since 2003, said the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which monitors trade flows.
US-Cuba normalization expected to bring larger farm exports
Normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, announced by President Obama, will include easier terms for selling U.S. food and agricultural equipment to the island nation, long viewed by farm groups as a natural and nearby market.
U.S. relaxes trade regulations with Cuba, may aid ag exports
The Obama administration relaxed trade rules with Cuba, changes that were promised when President Obama announced normalization of relations on Dec 17. The Treasury and Commerce departments published regulations in the Federal Register to facilitate trade. "These changes will immediately enable the American people to provide more resources to empower the Cuban population to become less dependent upon the state-driven economy, and help facilitate our growing relationship with the Cuban people," said the White House.
US farm groups, ag leaders form Cuba trade coalition
Nearly three dozen farm groups and agribusinesses announced a joint effort as the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba "that seeks the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and to advance trade relations between both nations.