Florida farmers want to take advantage of trade with Cuba

Tuesday, November 4th
Bay News9, Tampa Bay, FLORIDA

Local dairy farmer wants to take advatage of Cuba trade.
The current trade embargo with Cuba allows the U.S. to export agricultural products. Tampa Bay already sends fertilizer to Cuba.

But now local businessmen want to take advantage of a bigger market on the island.

A Naples dairy farmer has already taken the first steps.

"I decided to follow the footsteps of my ancestors to re-establish the friendship that they enjoyed in Cuba over 100 years ago," says John Parke Wright.

More...
http://www.baynews9.com/site/NewsStory.cfm?storyid=27235

Hmmm, who are Florida's farmers going to vote for eh!

Tue Nov 4, 8:48 AM ET
By Paul Simao

GULFPORT, Miss. (Reuters) - What do Fidel Castro (news - web sites) and a bunch of "good ole boys" from Dixie have in common?

Chicken and cheeseburgers, for starters.

Mississippi, long considered one of the most politically conservative states in the nation, is cultivating a small but burgeoning trade relationship with Cuba's communist-run government.

Ships laden with an extensive and growing list of U.S. food and agricultural products such as beef, chicken, rice and cheese now sail regularly from Gulfport and Pascagoula to Havana, the Cuban capital.

The exports, legal under an exemption to the United States' four-decade-old trade embargo of Cuba, have whetted interest in Mississippi and spurred hopes that the state will win a healthy share of U.S.-Cuban trade if, as Mississippi expects, relations are eventually normalized.

More...
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/11/04/mississippi.trade.reut/index.html

Not if the 2004 Democratic presidential contenders can help it eh!

until El Presidente Boosh Boy is out of the Casa Blanca...

and get its act together as his presence in Cuba this week clearly shows!!!!!!

By Bonnie Pfister
Express-News Business Writer

11/06/2003
In the two years since American farmers have been permitted to sell to Cuba, the countries' trade relationship has lurched forward in fits and starts.

Last year saw the first American-sponsored agribusiness trade fair in Havana. This year Fidel Castro jailed dozens of dissidents, and President Bush responded by limiting business travel to the communist island.

Still, one-way cash-only trade muddles on, with American farmers selling $282 million worth since trade began in 2001. It went as food and forestry goods to the economically struggling nation of 11 million.

But Texas so far is mostly on the sidelines. No Texas producers have made any deal with Alimport, the Cuban agency that negotiates deals.

Members of the Texas Cuba Trade Alliance, a 10-month-old coalition of state agriculture promoters and businesses, are in Havana this week hoping to make a deal. They join 71 companies from 19 states and vendors from around the world.

More..
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=110&xlc=1080003&xld=110

With the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates still standing with the extremist minority that wants to maintain the embargo, who are all these anti-embargo voters in Florida, Mississippi, Texas and at least 35 other states to vote for? Hmmm.