By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

DECATUR, Ill. — Illinois Cuba Working Group (ICWG) leaders and a Cuban trade official made a pitch for passage of a key legislative measure that would facilitate greater trade opportunities between Cuba and the United States, during the opening day of the recent Farm Progress Show in Decatur.

The media event, hosted by ICWG Executive Director Paul Johnson, was attended by special guest Rodney Gonzalez, the commercial attaché for the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Both hope to break down a key trade barrier inhibiting U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba: The inability to extend credit to Cuban purchasers due to a decades-old embargo on trade imposed by the U.S. The solution, both men say, could come with passage of the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act (House Resolution 1898), which would permit U.S. food exporters to sell to Cuba on credit.

This would level the playing field with other exporting countries that have agreed to extend credit to Cuban purchasers. H.R. 1898, introduced in March by Rep. Erick “Rick” Crawford, an Arkansas Republican, would allow U.S.-based lending institutions to make their own determinations as to whether Cuban buyers can qualify for loans.

“The change would not place U.S. taxpayers on the hook for potential credit default, nor does it strengthen the Cuban government. It simply allows private investors and banks to assess country risk and proceed accordingly,” Johnson said. “It would allow U.S. farmers, ranchers, and commercial enterprises to compete and provide U.S. agricultural goods to the island.”

Officials with the Illinois Soybean Growers (ISG) have visited Cuba 12 times since 2012 to explore expanded trade and are in full support of the bill, according to Mark Albertson, ISG director of strategic market development.

“As farmers and ag producers, we need every market we can get, especially those that are so close. Being able to export our crops and products to Cuba is something we should be able to do,” Albertson said following the farm show.

“Our soybeans and our corn have been sitting in bins. When the grain isn’t being sold, no one is getting paid. Now is the perfect time to move our crops to nearby markets.”

The bill was spurred, in part, by Cuba distancing itself from U.S.-sourced poultry during 2018. Historically a Top 5 market for U.S. chicken, Cuban buyers instead turned to the European Union and Brazil last year. During his Illinois visit, Gonzalez was introduced to leaders in agriculture, including farmers, to explore expansion of trade between the nations.

“We believe that both American and Cuban businesses can benefit from trade between our two countries,” which are just 90 miles apart, Albertson added. “With today’s current trade situation, our state’s soybean producers, along with livestock producers who feed our soybeans to their pigs and chickens, need access to markets.

“Cuba has so much potential to help our state’s exporters. Cuba imports 80 percent of its food and struggles to feed its people. The U.S. has food and products that could help the Cuban people.”

The push for passage of H.R. 1898 comes despite sanctions and penalties announced in March by the Trump administration and former national security advisor John Bolton, designed to strike against the “troika of tyranny” – Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

Reinstatement of titles III and IV from Helms-Burton (ratified in 1995 in an effort to unseat the late Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Communist regime), as threatened by the Trump administration, would be directly harmful to agricultural trade, Johnson told Farm World back in May.

“There are a lot of people in our industry who are very concerned about this unknown. It will impede future and existing trade we have with Cuba. Banks are concerned about how their role could be impacted in facilitating lines of credit to Cuba, and that puts a brake on export sales,” he explained.

“We are trying to get clarity from the administration as to how this affects agricultural trade. We know we can’t do business with any companies or individuals that are tied to the Cuban military, but Title III goes somewhat beyond that, and I don’t know where that ends.”

Despite a 60-year overall trade embargo with Cuba, the U.S. was the leading exporter of agricultural products to the island nation from 2003-12, before falling behind to Brazil and the EU.

In 2014, former President Barack Obama announced the U.S. would reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba and begin easing trade restrictions, leading many U.S. ag commodity and equipment groups to resume limited trade with Cuban non-military customers.