MIAMI, Fla. — U.S. farmers are bracing for the impact of President Donald Trump’s new trade policy with Cuba, just as they were seeing exports to the island increase after an Obama-era détente opened the market.

 

Trump’s tightened export plans, announced on June 16 with many Cuban exiles cheering, could harm U.S. farmers who were placing economic hopes on a boost to the domestic agriculture market with farm exports to Cuba.

“Effective immediately, I am cancelling the last administrations completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Trump told his audience, but the details of his new policy remain unwritten.

Following his announcement, Trump signed an Executive Order imposing travel and commercial restrictions. The order bars U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with any firm controlled by the Cuban military or its intelligence agencies, and cuts off unlimited tourist trade.

It’s unknown what the business restrictions mean to U.S. farmers. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Davis issued a statement calling on the White House to “exercise caution” in halting renewed trade with Cuba initiated by the Obama Administration in December 2014.

“We urge the administration to exercise caution in rolling out any new restrictions on doing business with Cuba that would limit our agricultural export opportunities,” Davis said. 

 

American farm products saw a historic 35.4 million bushels of corn arrive on the island last year, making Cuba the 11th largest customer for U.S. farmers, according to the U.S. Grains Council (USCG).

“In the first eight months of this marketing year, Cuba purchased more than 9.8 million bushels of corn or 250,000 metric tons, about 30 percent of their total demand,” said USCG president Tom Sleight.

Limited agricultural exports to Cuba in 2015 totaled just $175 million, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, in a multi-billion market to feed Cuba’s nearly 15 million population. In 2008, U.S. exports to Cuba were $710 million.

Wesley Spurlock, president of the National Corn Growers Assoc., said in response to Trump’s announcement,  “Cuba should be an easy market for U.S. corn farmers. Instead, the market has gone to our competitors – costing an estimated $125 million in lost opportunity each year. 

 

“If trade with Cuba were normalized, it would represent our 11th largest market for corn,” Spurlock said. “Instead, we have just 11 percent market share in the country. At a time when the farm economy is struggling, we ask our leaders in Washington not to close doors on market opportunities for American agriculture.”

In July 2015, the Obama administration formally established diplomatic relations with Cuba, lifting travel restrictions for U.S. tourists anxious to visit their neighbor south of the border, and kick-started business prospects.

Trump’s intention of shutting down business ties brought an immediate rebuke from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “U.S. private sector engagement can be a positive force for the kind of change we all wish to see in Cuba,” the Chamber’s Myron Brilliant said in a statement as the head of international affairs.

“Unfortunately, (Trump’s) moves actually limit the possibility for a positive change on the island and risk ceding growth opportunities to other countries that, frankly, may not share American’s interest in a free and democratic Cuba.”