Thursday, February 15, 2007

by Marc Frank

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Communist Cuba remained one of the more important markets for American farmers in 2006 despite a decades-old trade embargo, a US-based organization that tracks the sales said on Wednesday.

US food exports to Cuba totaled $340.4 million last year, placing Cuba 34th out of 227 agricultural product export markets, the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council reported, based on US government export data.

That is a slight dip from $350 million in 2005 and $392 million in 2004, the council said, with total sales to Cuba exceeding $1.5 billion since they began five years ago.

The United States was the top exporter of food to Cuba in 2004 and 2005. The figures for 2006 are not yet available.

The council has monitored the cash-only sales since they were approved by the US Congress in 2000 as an exception to the trade embargo imposed on Cuba after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

Castro temporarily handed power to his brother and Defense Minister Raul Castro on July 31 after undergoing abdominal surgery, and he is still in recovery.

US businessmen report it has been business as usual since July, perhaps with a little less political grandstanding.

"At the trade fair this year we just quietly signed contracts without the usual hoopla and press conferences," a US trader involved in the business for years said, asking not to be named.

With Democrats now in control of the US Congress and the belief by some lawmakers that Castro's stepping aside provides an opportunity for improved relations, a number of bills have been introduced that would loosen trade and travel restrictions.

The Bush administration opposes the measures.

"Despite all the tough talk between the two governments, Cuba has paid American farmers $1.5 billion since George Bush went to the White House," said Julia Sweig, an expert on Cuba at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington.

"This is a significant wedge in the door of the embargo, a door that may well swing wide open if the Congress gets rid of the travel ban and Americans start flocking to the island," she said.

Cuba has said the slight decline in purchases since 2004 was due to the Bush administration's steps to tighten restrictions on travel to Cuba and regulations covering payment for Cuban purchases.

The trade council's senior policy adviser, John Kavulich, said that was nonsense.

"The approximately 3 percent decrease in agricultural commodity and food product exports from the United States to Cuba in 2006 was expected due to Cuba's increasing reliance upon countries which provide commercial, economic, and political support to Cuba, specifically Venezuela, China, and Vietnam," he said.

Wheat, chicken, corn, rice and soy products accounted for more than 70 percent of US sales to Cuba in 2006, following a similar pattern in previous years.

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