CUBAN TIES: J.P. Wright & Co. chief executive John Parke Wright, left, embraces Fidel Castro's brother, Ramon Castro Ruz, in this photo released Thursday by the Naples rancher. J.P. WRIGHT & CO.
Posted on 08/15/2003 2:28:27 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The latest large-scale loophole in the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba goes moo -- nearly 150 times.
A Naples rancher, J.P. Wright & Co., announced Thursday that it had delivered 148 dairy cattle to the island this week in what the firm said was the largest successful U.S. shipment of cows to Cuba since the communist revolution.
The shipment, the latest of several summer deliveries, raised to nearly 450 the number of U.S. cattle that have been sent to Cuba since Congress in 2000 exempted U.S. food and agricultural products from the overall trade embargo, provided Cuba pays cash.
''This is a significant step toward restoring positive relations between the people of Cuba and Florida,'' company chief executive John Parke Wright said in a press release. ``This exchange opens the doors to restored ties between family farms in the U.S. and Cuba.''
Company publicist Dan Krassner said all the cows were meant for island farms, with their output aimed at producing milk and ice cream for people in Cuba.
The announcement was accompanied by a picture of Wright in a classic Cuban guayabera shirt, arm in arm and sharing cigars with a likewise attired Ramón Castro Ruz, Fidel Castro's older brother.
John Kavulich II, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, an independent monitoring group, valued the deal at about $300,000.
Since Congress passed the exemption, he said, Cuba has purchased about $250 million in agricultural and food products, such as cattle, corn, wheat, soy rice and poultry.
CUBAN TIES: J.P. Wright & Co. chief executive John Parke Wright, left, embraces Fidel Castro's brother, Ramon Castro Ruz, in this photo released Thursday by the Naples rancher. J.P. WRIGHT & CO.
Who's buying that?
***Cuba has bought $480 million in U.S. farm products, but it has to pay cash due to a credit ban in the U.S. embargo. European businessmen that are owed millions of dollars for shipments to Cuba are frustrated to see U.S. firms get payed up front. "The Americans are benefiting because the Cubans are using credit lines from French banks to pay for food imports and putting on hold debt payments to European exporters," said a European diplomat. ***
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And they'll keep getting stiffed as lobbyists and socialists on Capital Hill try to get laws passed that will allow U.S. taxpayer subsidize shipments to Cuba to prop up his regime and free up Castro's money to continue exporting anti-Americanism around the world. As soon as he gets credit he'll default on those loans. Just ask the world about Castro and credit.
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