Rice Industry Cautiously Optimistic for Removal of Ag Financing Barriers with Cuba

WASHINGTON, DC – In a swarm of legislative activity by Congress over the past three days, Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) last night withdrew his amendment to the House’s FY 2017 Financial Services Appropriations Bill that would have removed the restrictions on private financing by U.S. businesses for the sale of agricultural products to Cuba.  Crawford’s effort to improve the underlying legislation had gained significant bipartisan support amongst several Members of Congress over the last two weeks since the amendment was first introduced.

Crawford said, “This week, I sought to pass an amendment to appropriations legislation that would have opened the Cuban market to our agriculture producers.  However, instead of taking the appropriations route, which would only be in effect for one fiscal year, I received a strong commitment from House leadership that we will pursue a long-term solution that will open up agriculture trade permanently.”

“This path forward is a major victory for American producers, particularly our rice farmers, who wish to sell their commodities into the island nation’s market, which is estimated to be worth in excess of $1 billion annually," added Crawford.

“We worked alongside the staff of Congressman Crawford and others in the agriculture sector who are supportive of ending this outdated policy to advance this amendment and we managed to gain more support,” said USA Rice Vice President of Government Affairs Ben Mosely.  “Obviously Congressman Crawford isn’t the only legislator that wants to be on the right side of history.  The vote was going to be close and the Congressman made the decision to pull back his amendment in return for commitments from opposition and House leadership that leaves us optimistic that the barriers will be addressed this year.”

Mosely continued, “Speaking on behalf of USA Rice and agriculture as a whole, we’re grateful for the work that Congressman Crawford continues to do to support our industry.  USA Rice will continue to work towards a permanent, long-term solution to address private financing of commodities sold to Cuba so we can be on a level playing field with all the other U.S. industries doing business there.”