| Senate Votes to Ease Cuban Trade Embargo | |
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Dateline: 10/19/00
The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 86-6 to reduce trade sanctions against Cuba. For the first time in over 40 years, U.S. exporters will be allowed to sell food and medicine to Cuba.
The action came as an amendment to the Conference Report on bill H.R. 4461 - the agricultural spending bill for FY 2001.
Under
provisions of the bill, U.S. lending institutions -- public or private -- are
prohibited from financing sales of food or medicine to Cuba. However, the
president is allowed to waive the ban on U.S. financing under certain compelling
humanitarian circumstances. Lowering the embargo on food sales could have
a positive impact on the American agricultural industry by making Cuba's $700
million-a-year imported food market accessible to U.S. farmers. However, the ban on
U.S. financing will may make it difficult for smaller U.S. agricultural exporters to sell to Cuba. President
Clinton has expressed unhappiness with some provisions of the bill, but has not
threatened to veto it. Passage of the bill brings Congress one step closer to completing its work on
the FY 2001 federal budget. So far, only three of 13 required annual appropriations bills authorizing
spending for the next year have been approved by Congress and signed by the
President. By law, all 13 spending bills should have been passed and signed by October
1. The government has been operating on emergency spending extension legislation
called "Continuing Resolutions" since then. [See: The
Federal Budget Process] As many as seven more spending bills could reach the President's desk this
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