U.S.-Cuba Trade Council: Vilsack should visit Cuba
September 15, 2015 |04:10 PM
Amidst the news that Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker is planning to visit Cuba in conjunction with a trade show, the U.S.-Cuba Trade Council today called on Agriculture Secretary Vilsack also to visit Cuba.
“Consideration needs be given of a joint visit to the Republic of Cuba by Secretary Pritzker and the Honorable Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture, who would be accompanied by representatives of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS),” John Kavulich, president of the council, said in a news release.
“If a joint visit is not feasible, Secretary Vilsack should visit the Republic of Cuba in 2015 or in early 2016,” Kavulich added.
“A visit by Secretary Vilsack need not await any changes in policy by the government of the Republic of Cuba, as there have been meaningful exports of food products and agricultural products to the Republic of Cuba,” Kavulich said.
“There are issues relating to APHIS that can be managed with expanded cooperation, especially with reciprocal visits and use of the newly-operational staffs within the embassies in the respective capitols,” added Kavulich, who is well known for his statistics on U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba, but will not reveal the names of the companies that belong to the council.
Exports of food products and agricultural commodities under provisions of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSREEA) for the period December 2001 through July 2015 were $5.2 billion, Kavulich said, and have decreased each year since 2008, when exports peaked at $710 million.
Exports in 2015 were $122 million. TSREEA exports during the Bush administration were approximately $2.6 billion; exports thus far in the Obama administration are approximately $2.4 billion.
“Consideration needs be given of a joint visit to the Republic of Cuba by Secretary Pritzker and the Honorable Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture, who would be accompanied by representatives of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS),” John Kavulich, president of the council, said in a news release.
“If a joint visit is not feasible, Secretary Vilsack should visit the Republic of Cuba in 2015 or in early 2016,” Kavulich added.
“A visit by Secretary Vilsack need not await any changes in policy by the government of the Republic of Cuba, as there have been meaningful exports of food products and agricultural products to the Republic of Cuba,” Kavulich said.
“There are issues relating to APHIS that can be managed with expanded cooperation, especially with reciprocal visits and use of the newly-operational staffs within the embassies in the respective capitols,” added Kavulich, who is well known for his statistics on U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba, but will not reveal the names of the companies that belong to the council.
Exports of food products and agricultural commodities under provisions of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSREEA) for the period December 2001 through July 2015 were $5.2 billion, Kavulich said, and have decreased each year since 2008, when exports peaked at $710 million.
Exports in 2015 were $122 million. TSREEA exports during the Bush administration were approximately $2.6 billion; exports thus far in the Obama administration are approximately $2.4 billion.
