Farm-state senators, including several leading Republicans, said this week the Bush administration is putting up roadblocks to agricultural exports to Cuba and planned to take legislative steps to protect that growing market.
Dont put up artificial barriers, dont create a chilling effect, said Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican. He is co-sponsor of legislation aimed at clarifying the rules of the 2000 statute making food and agricultural exports an exception to the trade embargo with Cuba.
Craig was joined in promoting the measure by Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, and Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.
The senators noted that since the passage of the 2000 act, the Castro regime has become the 21st largest importer of U.S. agricultural products with annual purchases of $1 billion.