Trade With Cuba Steadily Rising

Despite Embargo, Cuba Purchased Nearly $400M In U.S. Goods In 2004

(CBS) 
Martinez has helped companies selling animal feed, peanuts and fresh produce get licenses and negotiate deals in Cuba. He feels very strongly that it's time for change. "This embargo policy has been in place for more than 40 years and we haven’t really achieved anything with it. What it has created is a great deal of misery, mistrust and ignorance."

Furthermore, Martinez pointed out it makes sense for American businessmen to get a foot in the door. "The people who are selling food now know that this is an island with 11 ½ million people besides Fidel Castro and when Fidel Castro is no longer in power those 11 ½ million people are still going to be here."

Tim Lynch, who holds a doctorate in economics and is director of the Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis at Florida State University, has predicted that free trade with Cuba could generate $50 billion and 900,000 jobs for the United States over a 20-year period.

Those are the kinds of figures that that anti-embargo activists cite when advocating a change in policy.

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition falls in that category. It’s currently using its Web site to mobilize embargo opponents prior to November 8, when the United Nations General Assembly will be voting for the 14th consecutive year on a Cuban sponsored resolution calling for the lifting of the U.S. blockade, Havana’s term for the embargo. The resolution has passed overwhelmingly every year since first presented.

The message on their Web site urges people "to send a message of opposition to the U.S. blockade of Cuba to the Congressional Representative in your District, Senators in your state, President George W. Bush, Secretary of the Department of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez and Secretary of the Treasury John William Snow."

Washington is unlikely to listen. The Bush Administration has been pursuing a policy intended to speed up the downfall of the Castro regime. A coordinator for a post-Castro Cuba transition was recently appointed. His job has been described as two-fold: to hasten the transition and then to help establish a democratic government and market economy. The strategy, as outlined in a report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, doesn’t include easing trade restrictions until after the transition is solidified.