The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“U.S. FARM PRODUCT SALES TO CUBA” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S3000-S3002 on April 22, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
U.S. FARM PRODUCT SALES TO CUBA
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, it is one thing to shoot yourself in the foot, it is quite another thing to take aim before you shoot. That is what has happened in the last couple of weeks with respect to the State Department deciding to revoke the visas they previously granted to Pedro Alvarez and other officials from a group called Alimport, which is a Cuban state-run purchaser of foreign goods.
Mr. Alvarez and others were invited to come from Cuba to the United States, to come to North Dakota, to Iowa, and to other parts of farm country in the United States because they need food. The Cuban economy has been injured, of course, by the hurricane, and they need food. As a result of that, they have been purchasing food from the United States. Why have they been purchasing food from the United States? Because I and some others took the lead in Congress to end the embargo with respect to the shipment of food from the United States to Cuba.
That embargo has existed for decades. We ended that in the year 2000. The result is that Cubans have bought $70 million-plus worth of food from us in the last few months.
It is kind of byzantine, because in order to buy food from us, they are required to pay cash and do it through a French bank. They work the transaction through a French bank. Nonetheless, that is what they have done.
Mr. Alvarez and the organization Alimport applied for visas to come to this country at the invitation of U.S. farm groups to buy additional wheat, eggs, dried beans, and other commodities. So they were given the visas. Just a couple days later, the visas were yanked. The passports were asked to be returned, and the visas were revoked. When I learned of that, I called the State Department.
Here is what the State Department told my staff. My staff asked: What is going on? Why did you revoke the visas of the people who were going to come from Cuba to purchase some additional United States food from our farmers?
It is the policy of this administration not to encourage agricultural sales to Cuba.
Let me read that again. That is a most byzantine position.
It is the policy of this administration not to encourage agricultural sales to Cuba.
We sell it to Communist China. Yes. That is a Communist government. We sell food to Vietnam. Yes. That is a Communist government. We sell food virtually all around the world. We fought for years to lift this embargo on food sales to Cuba. We are now selling food to Cuba, and we have some people taking a brainless position down at the Department of State that it is not our position to encourage food sales to Cuba; therefore, we will revoke the visas we previously granted to the head of Alimport to come into this country, to visit farm States, to purchase some dried beans, wheat, eggs, and other food products.
I am writing a letter today to Mr. Alvarez inviting him to come to the United States. It is not from farm organizations. It is from me. I am sending a copy of that letter to the State Department saying: You have an obligation to play straight.
When this country has the opportunity for family farmers to sell food to those in Cuba who need it and who are hungry and want access to that food, we have a responsibility to our farmers, and the State Department has a responsibility to the Congress to help make that happen.
Our farmers are facing really tough times. Prices have collapsed. They have remained down for a long while. Then we have this embargo on food sales and shipments to Cuba. We opened it just a bit and sold them
$70 million worth of food. Now we have folks down in the State Department trying to play games with it once again.
I have asked the State Department: Who made these decisions? How did you make the decision? Who demanded that the visas be revoked? I want to know who has their foot on the brake. I want to know who has one of these hardheaded embargoes still going on with respect to Cuba. I want to know who is asking family farmers to be pawns in this struggle they have with Cuba.
Let me say that Mr. Otto Reich, the administration's top Latin American official, told a group of farmers: We are not going to be
``economic suckers'' to Fidel Castro. That attitude is an insult to American farmers. Our farmers produce food. They ought not be pawns in some soft-headed foreign policy by which someone wants to prevent that food from going to hungry people.
Does anyone here think Fidel Castro has ever missed a meal because we have for 35 or 40 years not allowed farmers to send food to Cuba? Does anyone here think Fidel Castro has ever missed breakfast, lunch, or dinner? You know better than that.
This country is shooting itself in the foot. Mr. Reich and others are taking aim before they do it. It is unforgivable. They have an obligation to play straight on this issue.
We have already debated this issue and made a decision on this issue. The decision was that it is immoral to use food as a weapon, and we are not going to do it anymore--not with Cuba, and not with other countries.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of a letter I sent to Mr. Colin Powell, Secretary of State, asking the questions: Who made these decisions? How did they make these decisions? When did they make them?
I would also like to have printed in the Record a letter from two dozen agricultural organizations protesting the same decision to revoke this visa. It includes the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Meat Institute, Farmland Industries, the National Association of Wheat Growers, the U.S. Canola Association, the U.S. Dry Pea & Lentil Council, U.S. Wheat Associates, and the list goes on and on.
There being no objection, the letters were ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC, April 17, 2002.Hon. Colin L. Powell,Secretary of State, the State Department,Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Powell: My office has been informed that the State Department recently approved--then rescinded--a visit for Pedro Alvarez, Chief of Alimport and other Cuban officials, who wished to come here to buy U.S. farm products.
Their trip to the United States would have included a visit to my state, North Dakota, where they had been invited by a North Dakota farm organization which hoped to interest them in buying some of North Dakota's excellent farm products. It was to be a customary visit foreign purchasing agents make to meet with U.S. suppliers, inspect facilities, and verify U.S. procedures and standards before making major purchases.
This was an important visit, filled with economic opportunity for North Dakota farmers who continue to suffer under commodity prices that collapsed six years ago and that have remained collapsed ever since.
Alimport is a very significant customer for U.S. farm products. Since November 2001, when legislation I helped enact into law finally made it possible for U.S. organizations and companies to sell food and medicines to Cuba, Alimport has purchased approximately 450,000 metric tons of agricultural commodities--corn, rice, wheat, soy, poultry, vegetable oil, apples, peas, eggs and pork lard--worth about $75 million.
I want a complete investigation into why these visas were cancelled. When my staff inquired about it, State Department officials told them, ``It is the policy of this Administration not to encourage agricultural sales to Cuba.'' That is unacceptable to me.
If that is the basis for which the visas were cancelled, it is an insult to American farmers and puts at risk agricultural sales to Cuba. At a time when grain prices remain collapsed, it is just plain wrong for the Administration to try to impede the sale of grain to Cuba.
This is a brainless policy to be saying that we don't want to sell grain to the Cubans. We sell grain to communist China, communist Viet Nam, and it's just absurd to tell our farmers that our government doesn't want to sell grain to Cuba.
I want a complete investigation to find out who is running things in the State Department. Who ordered the visas cancelled? Did political operatives in the Administration communicate with the State Department about these visas?
I also want to request that you personally intervene in this matter. Our country needs to use some common sense. We must stop using our family farmers as pawns in foreign policy. That is the mandate from Congress and, specifically, when it comes to Cuba that is the law. It ought to be obeyed.
Pleased intervene and make the right decision with respect to these issues.
Sincerely,
Byron L. Dorgan,U.S. Senator.
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April 18, 2002.Hon. Colin L. Powell,Secretary, U.S. Department of State,Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Powell: As export dependent food and agricultural industries, we wish to express our disappointment with the recent action taken by the Department of State to deny visas to Cuban trade officials. The planned meetings between U.S. agricultural representatives and Cuban officials to review U.S. standards and procedures in conjunction with contracted and potential agricultural sales to Cuba will no longer be possible. Maintaining access to the Cuban market for our products is an important goal for our industry.
The purpose of the Cuban travel, that has now been denied, was for Cuban officials to meet with U.S. suppliers, inspect facilities, discuss sanitary and phytosanitary issues and verify U.S. procedures and standards associated with the sale of U.S. food and agricultural exports to Cuba. Visits of this type are routinely conducted by U.S. officials and U.S. importers in markets that sell to the United States. It is also customary practice for foreign purchasing agents and government technical teams to travel to the U.S. to meet with U.S. suppliers and tour facilities.
Two years ago, Congress, backed by the strong support of the U.S. food and agricultural community, opened the Cuban market for our goods by partially lifting nearly 40 years of unilateral sanctions against Cuba. Cuba continues to pay cash in full for its purchases and has signaled intent to expand its imports of U.S. food and agricultural commodities.
Mr. Secretary, we ask your help in keeping this small but viable market open for export sales of U.S. food and agricultural commodities. This recent action by the Department of State puts all future Cuban food and agricultural purchases at risk at a time when American farmers and ranchers are under extreme economic stress from low prices and decreasing world market share.
We hope that the administration will look favorable upon future purchasing and technical visits from Cuban officials.Sincerely,
Agricultural Retailers Association.
American Farm Bureau Federation.
American Meat Institute.
American Soybean Association.
Archer Daniels Midland Company.
Cargill Incorporated.
Farmland Industries, Inc.
Grocery Manufacturers of America.
Louis Dreyfus Corporation.
National Association of Wheat Growers.
National Barley Growers Association.
National Chicken Council.
National Corn Growers Association.
National Oilseed Processors Association.
National Pork Producers Council.
National Renderers Association.
National Sunflower Association.
North American Export Grain Association.
North American Millers' Association.
Rice Millers' Association.
U.S. Canola Association.
U.S. Dry Pea & Lentil Council.
U.S. Rice Producers Association.
U.S. Rice Producers' Group.
U.S. Wheat Associates.
Wheat Export Trade Education Committee.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this policy is wrong. This policy injures American farmers. This policy continues an embargo. We know embargoes hurt us. They hurt our farmers. Those kinds of activities hurt poor, sick and hungry people in countries like Cuba. They do not hurt Fidel Castro. They hurt our farmers. And they hurt the poor, sick, and hungry people abroad.
When someone wants to come to this country to buy American grain, eggs, dried beans, and other products our farmers produce, the State Department has no right, in my judgment, to revoke those visas for political purposes. That is what I think has happened in this regard.
It is the policy of this administration not to encourage agricultural sales to Cuba.
I say to those in this administration who have said that and who believe that: You have a responsibility to stop this nonsense. You are hurting American family farmers. And it is an abrogation of the policies we have already developed here in the Congress.
I am going to send a letter today to the State Department saying I have invited the head of Alimport into this country. I have invited them to North Dakota. I want them to come here and buy American farm products. I think the State Department has a responsibility to provide visas for those who would come from Alimport to make those purchases of grain.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, let me remind my colleagues of a couple things. First, this is a revenue bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair wishes to inform the Senator from Texas, we are not on the energy bill at this moment. We are still in morning business.
Does the Senator seek recognition in morning business?
Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I would be very happy to have my remarks in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
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