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Lawmakers still divided over Cuba trade

Legislation that would open the door to more agricultural exports to Cuba is expected to be introduced in the U.S. Senate this week.

Senate FinanceCommittee chairman Max Baucus, a long-time advocate of more open trade with Cuba, is sponsoring the bill. Several other Democratic Senators will be co-sponsors, including Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin.

Similar support, however, is not likely from IowaGOP Senator Charles Grassley, who’d like to see fundamental changes in Cuba.

“What I’m after is the release of political prisoners in Cuba and free elections,” Grassley said Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Grassley, speaking to reporters in aconference call, says that the Castros have maintained a political climate that has prevented the Cuban people from having a decent standard of living. He’d like to see that change before the U.S. loosens its trade sanctions against Cuba.

“We can talk about helping(the Cubans) through trade, but it isn’t going to do any good until we get the political situation and the economic situation straightened out so that people aren’t deprived,” said Grassley.

Grassley doesn’t believe that open trade will shift Cuban policies because hesays the country’s trade relations with other nations has done nothing to change the attitude of the Cuban government.

A broad base of U.S. agriculture interests would like to see greater trade opportunities with the island 90 miles off the Florida Coast. U.S. trade withCuba has not been normal since the Kennedy Administration.