vue - Leahy, On Opportunities, And Challenges, Of Potential U.S. Agriculture Trade With Cuba

WASHINGTON (TUESDAY, April 21, 2015) – Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday welcomed the potential for opening markets for American farmers in Cuba during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on “Opportunities and Challenges for Agriculture Trade with Cuba.” The hearing was the panel’s first such hearing since the breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations was announced last December by President Obama and President Castro. While cautioning that American farmers are not going to see an immediate commercial windfall, Leahy said: “American agriculture has long served as an important bridge to help foster better understanding and the exchange of ideas with people of other nations. The issue we are discussing today will do exactly that. It will increase the amount of food on the plates of the Cuban people and it will enable them to buy American.” Leahy has long led in pushing for an end to the failed 50-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba and for beginning the process of normalizing relations between the two countries. He most recently traveled to Cuba in January and is the Agriculture Committee’s most senior member. VIDEO includes Leahy’s opening statement, and his full statement can be found here.