Senators Protest Rules on Cuba Food Sales

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department (news - web sites) made clear Tuesday that Cuba must make cash payments before the shipment of U.S. agriculture and medical products to the island. The ruling drew quick criticism from farm-state senators, with one threatening to block nominees to Treasury posts.

"I'm outraged at this attempt by Treasury Department bureaucrats to choke off U.S. agriculture sales to Cuba," said Sen. Max Baucus (news, bio, voting record) of Montana, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

"When I first heard of the proposed change, I threatened to block consideration of significant Treasury nominees," Baucus said in a statement. "Now that the change is made, I promise to be good to my word."

Baucus has also joined senior Republicans, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and Larry Craig of Idaho, in promoting legislation to remove what they say are the bureaucratic obstacles being put up by the administration to farm trade.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050222/ap_on_go_co/us_cuba_trade

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from Canada?

:shrug:

I think not.


but then again,


Maybe we should ask? :evilgrin:

Posted on Tue, Feb. 22, 2005


Senators protest rules on Cuba food sales

JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department made clear Tuesday that Cuba must make cash payments before the shipment of U.S. agriculture and medical products to the island. The ruling drew quick criticism from farm-state senators, with one threatening to block nominees to Treasury posts.

"I'm outraged at this attempt by Treasury Department bureaucrats to choke off U.S. agriculture sales to Cuba," said Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

"When I first heard of the proposed change, I threatened to block consideration of significant Treasury nominees," Baucus said in a statement. "Now that the change is made, I promise to be good to my word."

Baucus has also joined senior Republicans, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and Larry Craig of Idaho, in promoting legislation to remove what they say are the bureaucratic obstacles being put up by the administration to farm trade.
With the new rule, said Dan Whiting, Craig's spokesman, "it's clear that we need to have the bill to change the direction."
(snip/...)

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/10964327.htm
(Free registration is required)

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BAUCUS: NEW CUBA RULE COULD LIMIT MONTANA AG SALES
Senator Vows To Block Treasury Nominees Over Ag Dispute
February 22, 2005
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) ---- U.S. Senator Max Baucus said today new Bush Administration rules aimed at choking off agriculture trade with Cuba could jeopardize a $15 million Montana agriculture deal Baucus inked while in Havana in December.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced today it will start requiring Cuba to pay cash before U.S. agriculture products are shipped to the island nation. Over the past several years U.S. exporters have routinely shipped Montana products to Cuba, transferring title and physical control to the Cuban buyers only after they got paid in full.

The new rules could make agriculture products subject to seizure by the U.S. Government because they would technically be Cuban Government property on U.S. soil, Baucus said. Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, the panel with jurisdiction over trade policy, said today he will block the Bush Administration's nominees to hold positions in the Treasury Department over the trade dispute.

"The administration's attempt to keep us from selling agricultural products to Cuba is an outrage," Baucus said. "Cuba is not a threat. That is why we must do more to open Cuba -- not less. We know that Cuba is a new market for Montana's high-quality products, and our farmers and ranchers deserve to be able to sell products there without red tape and road blocks every step of the way."
(snip/...)

http://baucus.senate.gov/~baucus/Press/05/02/2005222B08.html

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BAUCUS CALLS BUSH CUBA POLICY ‘ABSURD’
Senator Says Administration Wasting Counter-Terrorism Resources On Cuba
May 6, 2004
(Washington, D.C.) – Montana Senator Max Baucus today called the Bush Administration's renewed efforts to isolate Cuba "absurd," saying the Administration's expanded crackdown on contact with the island nation only takes away from anti-terrorism efforts.

Bush announced today the U.S. government will spend up to $59 million on efforts to remove Cuban President Fidel Castro from power, tighten limits on visits to Cuba by American family members, and boost surveillance and sting operations to keep American money from falling into the Cuban government's hands.

"At a time when the United States faces very real terrorist threats in the Middle East and elsewhere, the Administration's absurd and increasingly bizarre obsession with Cuba is more than just a shame, it's a dangerous diversion from reality," said Baucus, a longtime proponent of ending the decades-old restrictions the U.S. has in place against Cuba. "As we recently learned, a significant amount of Treasury Department funding that should be dedicated to shutting down terrorists' financial pipeline is instead being used to track people who take trips to Cuba or visit their families on the island. This when Osama Bin Laden is still at large?"

Upon learning of the Administration's crackdown today, Baucus and four other senators sent a letter to Bush outlining an alternate set of policy prescriptions that will lead to opening of doors between the American and Cuban people, including lifting the prohibition on American travel to Cuba, and dismantling the U.S. embargo on the country.
(snip/...)

http://www.senate.gov/~baucus/Press/04/05/2004506C41.html

From the Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10966826.htm

The Treasury decision also raised speculation that Cuba might retaliate by ending its U.S. purchases.

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We don't need no stinkin' jobs here in the US. <end sarcasm>


When will the farm states (red states) finally have enough of the pandering to the intransigent Miamicubano hardline professional "exiles"?

Sick sick sick! :puke: