International Trade Commission Report Affirms USA Rice Cuba Stance

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2007 — Contact: David Coia, (703) 236-2300, dcoia@usarice.com

A United States International Trade Commission (ITC) report on U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba released today confirms what the USA Rice Federation has been saying consistently since 2005 — that the lifting of restrictions imposed that year by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) would result in greater rice sales to Cuba.

The 180-page ITC report — U.S. Agricultural Sales to Cuba: Certain Economic Effects of U.S. Restrictions — says that “all agricultural commodity sectors would likely benefit from the lifting of the financing restriction on U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba.”

“Lifting financing restrictions…would have significant positive effect on U.S. rice exports to Cuba,” the report says. “Eliminating both trade and travel restrictions would likely increase U.S. rice exports by $15 million to $44 million above the 2006 level.”

“The conclusions of this report reflect our discussions with USA Rice members who sell rice to Cuba and with Cuban officials,” USA Rice President and CEO Betsy Ward said. “We fully support legislation proposed by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) to lift trade and travel restrictions on Cuba, as well as the companion legislation that has been offered in the House.”

Riceland Foods VP for Public Affairs Bill Reed testified during a May 1 ITC hearing that U.S. government restrictions on trade with Cuba deprive the United States of more than 3,300 jobs and the rice industry of about $150 million in the export value of U.S. rice each year. Reed’s testimony is cited in the today’s ITC report.

“Currently, we are unable to become the primary of supplier of choice for Cuba…given that the U.S. restrictions in place prevent us from being a ‘reliable’ supplier,” said Reed, who spoke on behalf of the USA Rice Federation.

According to the Senate Finance Committee news release accompanying the report, “current regulations make trade with Cuba extremely cumbersome and add unnecessary expense for American producers. Congress intended to facilitate agriculture trade with Cuba when it passed the 2000 Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSREEA).” The trade restrictions that have resulted from OFAC’s reinterpretation of TSREEA have “impeded trade, causing a 15 percent drop in exports to Cuba,” the release says.

“There is no single commodity that can gain more from free and open trade with Cuba than U.S. rice,” said Marvin Lehrer, the USA Rice senior consultant for Cuba. “Cubans are ready and eager to buy more U.S. rice as they prefer the quality and cooking results. The Cuban government also prefers to buy from the U.S. because of less costly and simpler logistics. The United States was the principal supplier of rice to Cuba before sanctions were imposed, and will be again once they are removed.”

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The USA Rice Federation is the global advocate for all segments of the U.S. rice industry with a mission to promote and protect the interests of producers, millers, merchants and allied businesses.