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U.S. opening its pantry to Cuba
By DAVID ADAMS MIAMI -- It's been almost 40 years since the U.S. government allowed companies in this country to sell anything directly to Cuba. Now, thanks to a hurricane, that's about to change, and a Florida company is one of those lining up to profit. Possibly as early as next week, ships bound for the communist-run island will set sail from New Orleans and Houston carrying tens of thousands of tons of rice, soybeans, corn, powdered milk and other basic foods. One of the shipping companies competing for the cargo delivery contract is Crowley Liner Services of Jacksonville. Under a groundbreaking arrangement made possible by Congress' approval of a law last year softening the U.S. embargo against Cuba, up to $30-million of goods are to be shipped in the next four months. Despite its historical significance, U.S. and Cuban officials are playing down the first sale of food to Cuba since 1962. Fidel Castro has called it a one-off deal made necessary by Hurricane Michelle, which swept Cuba Nov. 4 causing widespread damage to wheat mills and crops. U.S. officials say they are taking him at his word. However, Castro's unexpected move has U.S. officials, as well as Cuba experts and Cuban-American exiles, wondering what he's up to. Despite the U.S. government's cash-only condition, some Cuban-American exile leaders suspect Castro is taking everyone for a ride and doubt he intends to ever pay the full amount for the goods he receives. "It's all a great game," said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, the most influential exile group in Miami. "There's never been a good business deal with Castro." Others are less skeptical, arguing the deal is worthy of note, if only as a rare gesture of goodwill. "This is quite important," said Damian Fernandez, a Cuba scholar at Florida International University in Miami. "This might be a one-shot deal but it shows there is space for normal relations, even within the existing structure of the embargo." U.S. and Cuban officials say the food purchase should not be taken as any sign of a warming of relations. "It's an isolated fact," Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage told reporters in Havana. "We have no reason to see it as a policy shift, rather as something that happened because of a hurricane that doesn't happen every month in Cuba," he said. Cuba has also stressed that the purchases will not be repeated until the U.S. embargo law is changed. U.S. officials say they see no evidence that Cuba's long-term position has altered. They note that, before the current purchase, more than a year had passed since the embargo on sales of food and medicine was lifted by Congress in October 2000. At the time it passed, Castro bitterly attacked the legislation as being loaded with onerous restrictions, including a ban on private financing that effectively stripped it of value for Cuba's cash-strapped economy. Cuba traditionally buys as much as it can on credit, often making payment in kind with other goods. U.S. officials say Cuba's decision to avail itself of the food purchase now is a reflection of both the severity of storm damage from Michelle as well as Cuba's more fundamental economic woes. Cuba has been hard hit this year by a sharp downturn in the price of some of its major exports, including sugar and nickel. After Sept. 11 it has also seen a 25 percent drop in tourism, its largest foreign income earner. U.S. officials also point out that Cuba's original request to buy came after Havana had rejected an offer of humanitarian aid from Washington in the days after the hurricane struck. At first Cuba demanded a suspension of the financing restrictions, as well as use of its own ships. The United States declined on both counts, offering only to expedite the lengthy licensing process on humanitarian grounds. U.S. officials were pleasantly surprised when Cuba agreed. But some Cuba experts detect more than economic necessity. Although the purchase arose from Cuba's urgent need for basic foodstuffs after Michelle, experts say there are other political factors at play. Since the October 2000 change in law, U.S. business groups that favor trade with Cuba had been losing patience with Havana, according to John Kavulich, president of U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. In early November, the Senate passed an amendment to the Farm Bill seeking to allow private financing for food and agriculture sales to Cuba. But the bill appeared to be going nowhere. The next day Cuba announced its shopping list. "In one fell swoop the Cubans re-energized the U.S. business community and re-energized the legislative process on Cuba," said Kavulich. Since then, Kavulich's office has been closely following the sales talks. As of last week, the council reported contracts worth about $20-million had already been signed between the Cuban government and several big-name U.S. companies, including Archer Daniels Midland of Illinois, Riceland Foods Inc. of Arkansas and Cargill Inc. of Minnesota. A spokeswoman for ADM confirmed the company hoped to have its first consignment of corn ready to ship from Houston as early as Dec. 1. ADM has also been contracted to supply 20,000 metric tons of wheat, 5,000 metric tons of long-grain white rice, 12,000 metric tons of soybeans and 6,000 metric tons of soybean oil. It hopes to make those shipments over the next two months. Riceland has been contracted to export 15,000 metric tons of long-grain white rice, while Cargill is sending another 20,000 metric tons of wheat, 19,000 metric tons of corn and 5,000 metric tons of crude vegetable oil. This week Cuba has also invited representatives from leading U.S. poultry companies -- including Georgia's Gold Kist, Tyson Foods of Arkansas, Perdue Farms in Maryland and ConAgra Foods from Nebraska -- to supply some 6,000 metric tons of chicken-leg quarters, worth about $6.7-million, for delivery in December 2001 through March 2002. Garcia and other Cuban-Americans doubt the U.S. companies will ever get full payment. They point to the massive debts Cuba has with other foreign suppliers. They also note that most of the goods Cuba has requested from the United States are over-produced low-quality items that companies often have difficulty unloading. "ADM may have its boats ready, but where's the money?" asked Garcia. "They'll be lucky if Castro pays $7- to $10-million tops." The $30-million total sales represent only 4 percent of the approximately $750-million in food and agricultural products purchased by Cuba last year to feed its 11-million citizens. It does, however, set a useful precedent, said FIU's Fernandez. "In doing this, Fidel is sending a signal that it's okay to do business with the U.S. This is just another grain of sand in this process of functional integration." The U.S. response also has sent a useful goodwill message for Cubans on the island. "The U.S. comes out of this smelling like roses," said Fernandez. "It's not the Uncle Sam ogre pouncing on Cuba again in a moment of crisis." Castro mourns dead, scorns U.S. policyHAVANA -- Wearing a black armband of mourning, Fidel Castro told tens of thousands of Cubans on Tuesday that U.S. immigration policies were to blame for the deaths of 30 Cubans who perished at sea this month trying to reach the United States. While Castro said he lamented the deaths of the adults during the illegal attempt to reach Florida, "for the innocent children, driven to an unfair, undeserved death, we feel true mourning." Castro blamed the "murderous Cuban Adjustment Act" for those and hundreds of other similar deaths over the decades. Havana says the 1966 law encourages Cuban migrants to undertake dangerous sea journeys with the hope of living in the United States. The act allows Cubans -- unlike foreign migrants from other countries -- to avoid repatriation and later apply for American residency based simply on country of birth. -- Associated Press
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