USA Rice Millers’ Association Calls for End to U.S. Trade Embargo on Cuba

NASSAU, BAHAMAS, June 21, 2007 — Contacts: Jim Guinn, (703) 236-1474, jguinn@usarice.com

David Coia, (703) 236-2300, dcoia@usarice.com

The USA Rice Millers’ Association (RMA) unanimously adopted the following resolution during its annual board meeting June 12 in Nassau, Bahamas.

“The USA Rice Millers’ Association (RMA) calls on Congress and the administration to put an end to the U.S. trade and travel embargo on Cuba, a ban that has been in place effectively since 1961. It is time to end an outdated policy that does not hurt the Cuban government but continues to deny valuable business opportunities to American farmers, millers and allied businesses, like transportation, storage and shipping. The embargo on Cuba is effectively an embargo on U.S. agricultural products, including rice, and as such should not be continued. The USA Rice Millers’ Association supports a return to normal commercial relations between Cuba and the United States.”

Prior to the embargo, Cuba was the top market for U.S. rice. With the embargo, there was no trade for 40 years until Congress in October 2001 passed the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, allowing sales of food and medicine to Cuba.

Almost immediately, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed restrictions on banking, shipping and payment terms. OFAC tightened those restrictions in 2004 reducing the U.S. rice trade to a trickle.

“While we are able to sell some rice to Cuba, the present restrictions severely handicap our exports to what is a natural and should be one of the largest markets for the U.S. rice industry,” RMA Chairman Mike LaGrande said. “These are not restrictions on Cuba, but on U.S. businesses and workers. Cuba freely trades with U.S. competitors, including Vietnam and China.”

The U.S. government-sponsored embargo has forced more than $3 billion in losses on the rice industry, with the lost annual rice sales equating to a loss of nearly 5,000 U.S. jobs.

“The intended purpose of the embargo and tightened trade restrictions have not had their intended effect — even after more than two generations. It is past time for the embargo to end. Rice is the most basic of food products for Cuba’s 11 million citizens. Not only do Cubans consume rice every day, they prefer U.S. rice,” LaGrande said. “Yet, we continue to sell only a small fraction of the 400,000 to 600,000 metric tons we could be selling with normalized trade.”

“Disputes between the United States and Cuban are similar to those we have had with many countries prior to re-establishing relationships, but dialog has settled the disputes, and today we are active trading partners. We would like to see the same resolution with Cuba,” LaGrande said.

“The elimination of travel restrictions between the United States and Cuba would favor an increase in the sale of U.S. food products and would constitute an economic source for increasing purchases of U.S. products,” he said.

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The USA Rice Millers’ Association (RMA) is the national trade association of the U.S. rice milling industry. Founded in 1899, RMA is one of the oldest agribusiness trade organizations in America. RMA membership, which includes farmer-owned cooperatives and privately owned mills, represents virtually all of U.S. rice milling capacity, with mill members in Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. RMA associate members include exporters, shippers and other businesses allied with the rice trade. RMA is a charter member or the USA Rice Federation, the national advocate for all segments of the rice industry, conducting activities to influence government programs, developing and initiating programs to increase worldwide demand for U.S. rice, and providing other services to increase profitability for all industry segments.