Rice Leaders Address Cuba Trade Issue in Arkansas Farm Broadcast
04/03/09 03:59 PM Filed in: Voice of
Arkansas | Legislative
LITTLE
ROCK, AR — Easing travel and trade restrictions in
the short term and ending the multigenerational U.S.
trade embargo with Cuba in the long term would lift
the Arkansas farm economy, USA Rice Federation
President and CEO Betsy Ward and Prairie County rice
farmer Robert Petter said on this month’s The Voice
of Arkansas, an Arkansas Farm Bureau news program.
“If Arkansas can produce and mill and package and ship a large [tonnage] of rice to Cuba, that, in turn, is going to put a lot of people to work,” said Petter, who also serves as Arkansas Rice Council president.
“Even though we’re talking specifically about rice, [trade with Cuba] adds value all the way down the chain of merchants, millers, truckers and all the communities that support agriculture,” Ward said.
Cuba, which imports nearly 600,000 metric tons of rice annually, was the largest destination for U.S. rice before the embargo. Trade resumed in 2002 after Congress passed the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSREEA). However, when the Treasury Department reinterpreted the payment rules under TSREEA in 2005, U.S. rice exports declined from 176,631.9 metric tons (MT) in 2004 to less than 13,000 MT in 2008, leaving Vietnam and China as the chief beneficiaries of the reinterpretation.
Contact: David Coia, (703) 236-2300
“If Arkansas can produce and mill and package and ship a large [tonnage] of rice to Cuba, that, in turn, is going to put a lot of people to work,” said Petter, who also serves as Arkansas Rice Council president.
“Even though we’re talking specifically about rice, [trade with Cuba] adds value all the way down the chain of merchants, millers, truckers and all the communities that support agriculture,” Ward said.
Cuba, which imports nearly 600,000 metric tons of rice annually, was the largest destination for U.S. rice before the embargo. Trade resumed in 2002 after Congress passed the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSREEA). However, when the Treasury Department reinterpreted the payment rules under TSREEA in 2005, U.S. rice exports declined from 176,631.9 metric tons (MT) in 2004 to less than 13,000 MT in 2008, leaving Vietnam and China as the chief beneficiaries of the reinterpretation.
Contact: David Coia, (703) 236-2300
