11/17/2005
Cuba trade setback irks rice sellers
By ANGELA MACIAS
The Enterprise
Rice producers, already discouraged by low market prices, got more disappointing news this week when Congress killed a provision that could have made trade with Cuba easier.
"I've never figured out how we hurt another country by not selling to them. The only person they are hurting is the Texas rice farmer," Mike Doguet, Doguet Rice Milling Co. president, said Wednesday.
U.S. imports of medicine and agriculture products have been allowed into the communist island nation since 2001.
But the Treasury Department in March made trade more burdensome by requiring Cubans to pay for goods before they leave U.S. ports.
The measure stripped Tuesday from a spending bill at the behest of the Bush administration would have done away with the requirement.
U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, who is at odds with fellow Republicans over trade with Cuba, said the administration is being inconsistent in its trade policy.
Trade continues with communist China, and the White House supports North American and Central American free trade agreements, he said.
"The administration is wrong on this issue," he said. "We need to trade agriculture goods there."
Both the House and Senate approved the measure, but in a rare move it was removed from the bill in conference committee after the president threatened to veto the bill.
Another piece of legislation specific to allowing rice trade with Cuba will have to be drafted and worked through the process again, said Poe, R-Humble.
Southeast Texas was a major supplier of rice to Cuba before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
The U.S. imposed a trade embargo in the early 1960s.
Before the embargo, the Port of Beaumont would load a ship filled with rice bound for Cuba each week.
Farmers are trying to rebuild the market where rice is a staple food; each Cuban eats about 125 pounds of it each year.
But rice exports to Cuba are down about 40 percent this year compared with 2004, said Dwight Roberts, president and chief executive of the U.S. Rice Producers Association.
The Beaumont Rice Mill has sent one shipment of rice to Cuba since agriculture trade was opened up.
The mill can't compete with sellers in Vietnam, who charge a lower price and who also do not have the bureaucratic burden imposed on Americans, said Louis Broussard Jr., mill president.
"We have to drop the embargo completely, develop a relationship showing that Cuba is equal to us and then we could start moving to some sort of trade over the long term," he said.
amacias@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 833-3311, ext. 426
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15591341&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6
Cuba trade setback irks rice sellers
By ANGELA MACIAS
The Enterprise
Rice producers, already discouraged by low market prices, got more disappointing news this week when Congress killed a provision that could have made trade with Cuba easier.
"I've never figured out how we hurt another country by not selling to them. The only person they are hurting is the Texas rice farmer," Mike Doguet, Doguet Rice Milling Co. president, said Wednesday.
U.S. imports of medicine and agriculture products have been allowed into the communist island nation since 2001.
But the Treasury Department in March made trade more burdensome by requiring Cubans to pay for goods before they leave U.S. ports.
The measure stripped Tuesday from a spending bill at the behest of the Bush administration would have done away with the requirement.
U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, who is at odds with fellow Republicans over trade with Cuba, said the administration is being inconsistent in its trade policy.
Trade continues with communist China, and the White House supports North American and Central American free trade agreements, he said.
"The administration is wrong on this issue," he said. "We need to trade agriculture goods there."
Both the House and Senate approved the measure, but in a rare move it was removed from the bill in conference committee after the president threatened to veto the bill.
Another piece of legislation specific to allowing rice trade with Cuba will have to be drafted and worked through the process again, said Poe, R-Humble.
Southeast Texas was a major supplier of rice to Cuba before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
The U.S. imposed a trade embargo in the early 1960s.
Before the embargo, the Port of Beaumont would load a ship filled with rice bound for Cuba each week.
Farmers are trying to rebuild the market where rice is a staple food; each Cuban eats about 125 pounds of it each year.
But rice exports to Cuba are down about 40 percent this year compared with 2004, said Dwight Roberts, president and chief executive of the U.S. Rice Producers Association.
The Beaumont Rice Mill has sent one shipment of rice to Cuba since agriculture trade was opened up.
The mill can't compete with sellers in Vietnam, who charge a lower price and who also do not have the bureaucratic burden imposed on Americans, said Louis Broussard Jr., mill president.
"We have to drop the embargo completely, develop a relationship showing that Cuba is equal to us and then we could start moving to some sort of trade over the long term," he said.
amacias@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 833-3311, ext. 426
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15591341&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6
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