Adjusted Cuba Regulations only Helps Some Ag Sectors

Adjusted Cuba Regulations only Helps Some Ag Sectors
By Andy Eubank - Oct 23, 2016

Changes in regulations announced by the Obama administration last week
offer improved access to Cuba for some sectors of U.S. agriculture.
American Farm Bureau Federation trade specialist Dave Salmonsen says the
biggest regulation change lifts travel restrictions on rum and cigars
from Cuba.

"One of the changes that got a lot of attention falls in more of the
travel-related area–though it does involve some agriculturally related
products of course–and that's a long standing restriction of $100 that
was there on the amount of rum and cigars that people can bring back in
their personal luggage from Cuba. That limit's gone now so you can bring
back all the rum and cigars you can carry."

He says the new regulations offer improved trade to Cuba for agriculture
inputs, but that does not extend to commodity and food products.

"There have been some changes for financing for agricultural inputs that
U.S. companies can sell into Cuba. Previously these kinds of financing
were restricted, you couldn't extend credit. Those restrictions have
been lifted. There is no change though to a problem that we face as far
as selling agricultural commodities and food products into Cuba, and
there's a lot of restrictions on financing. That's in the statute, that
will require congressional action."

Also the recent changes eliminated a rule for shipping to Cuba. The rule
blocked U.S. ships traveling directly to Cuba from returning to the U.S.
for 180 days. Eliminating this rule will offer easier access for
agriculture in the future.

"Certainly everybody got around that rule, but it was a restriction. So
that should help the efficiency of establishing freight service directly
from U.S. ports to Cuban ports."

Salmonsen says that should be something that will bode well for the
future of increasing trade in agricultural products between the U.S. and
Cuba.

Source: Adjusted Cuba Regulations only Helps Some Ag Sectors | Hoosier
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