Sec. 2. Findings

364 words·~2 min read·/bill/116/hr/1898/ih/section-2

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Congress finds the following: The United States has a long history of providing safe and reliable exports. Close proximity to Cuba lends itself to low transportation costs for United States goods exported to Cuba. The United States is geographically poised to be a significant trading partner in agricultural commodities. Cuba imports approximately 80 percent of its food, with global agricultural exports to Cuba doubling over the past decade to $1,900,000,000. In 2015, the Obama administration reversed a prior rule of the Department of the Treasury that defined cash in advance to require that cash payments must be made before United States products leave United States ports.

The new rule defines cash in advance as cash before transfer of title , facilitating more efficient trade with Cuba. The Trump administration has retained this definition and stated in its National Security Presidential Memorandum on Cuba that forthcoming regulatory changes shall not prohibit transactions that support the sale of agricultural commodities consistent with the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. United States agricultural exporters are still not permitted to extend credit to Cuban buyers, including ALIMPORT, a State-owned and State-controlled entity that makes all decisions regarding United States exports to the Cuban market.

As a result, United States agricultural exports to Cuba have declined and United States exporters face a key disadvantage relative to other exporting countries. Notably, rice exports fell from a value of $64,000,000 in 2004 to essentially $0 in 2009 and subsequent years. Despite these restrictions, the United States has been the largest exporter of agricultural goods to Cuba over the last decade. However, the United States slipped to being the second leading exporter of agricultural goods to Cuba in 2013 and the third leading exporter of agricultural goods to Cuba in 2014.

For many of Cuba’s top agricultural imports, such as wheat, rice, and dairy, there have been no transactions with the United States in well over a decade. While trade opportunities exist, Cuba remains an undemocratic autocracy that oppresses its own people and restricts freedom. With these cautionary factors in mind, it is important to provide United States farmers and ranchers additional opportunities to benefit from trade with Cuba.