Excerpt from Agricultural Implications of Renewed Trade With Cuba: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Agriculture and Hunger of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session, May 19, 1994 This country of over 10 million people, just 90 miles from our shores, will eventually be a trading partner and a trade competitor. I am convinced it is not a matter of whether but a matter of when. We must anticipate these developments and understand their im plications as we consider our policy toward Cuba. Our subcommittee is anxious to learn more about this subject and we welcome the testimony of the economists who have studied Cuban agricultural and trade issues. I am also pleased to be able to hear from representatives of the private sector-who can comment on the perspective from their industries. At the outset, we have two or three Members of Congress who have expressed interest in testifying at this morning's hearing. The Honorable Charles Rangel who will be here shortly, and I under stand has a health markup, so he will not be with us for long I imagine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Amid over a half a century of antagonistic political relations between the United States and Cuba during which commercial ties were largely severed, U.S. exports of agricultural products to the island nation currently stand out as one of the few points of engagement between the two countries, if to a limited degree. U.S. exports of medicine and medical products is the other product category for which the U.S. government has eased its long-standing embargo on trade with Cuba. In a major diplomatic initiative, President Obama announced in December 2014 a significant shift in relations with Cuba with the goal of transitioning from a decades-long policy of sanctions that were designed to isolate Cuba toward a more normal bilateral relationship. This book reviews the current state of agricultural trade between the United States and Cuba, identifies key impediments to expanding bilateral trade in agricultural products, identifies key provisions in the law to which these obstacles are anchored, and considers the potential consequences for trade in agricultural goods in the event that the current thaw in diplomatic relations was to be extended more broadly so that bilateral trade was returned to a more normal footing. It also summarises several of the bills introduced in the 114th Congress that propose to remove specific restrictions that impede trade in agricultural goods or that seek to lift the embargo on Cuba entirely. This book also discusses the past, present, and possible future of the U.S.- Cuba agricultural trade; and provides information on Cuba's regulatory environment as it relates to U.S. agricultural exports.