6-27-05, 9:59 am

A bipartisan House bill (HR 1814) to end the ban on travel to Cuba may come up for a vote this week.

Proposed by Reps. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and William Delahunt (D-MA), this bill orders that 'the President shall not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel that are set forth in subsection.'

The proposal to end the ban has broad support in the US and in Cuba for a variety of reasons. Banning travel to Cuba is not based on 'national security' interests but rather on narrow political interests that do not reflect true public opinion. The ban on travel to Cuba is a politically motivated repression of the internationally recognized right to free movement.

Under the Bush administration’s current policies on Cuba, dialogue and exchange between neighboring peoples is disallowed. Instead the government operates a heavy-handed licensing process that restricts travel, limits cash assistance for families, and inhibits humanitarian donations.

US citizens are routinely fined by the Treasury Department for 'unlicensed travel,' and some Cuban Americans have been permanently barred from visiting the island by the US government.
In 2003, the Bush administration tightened travel restrictions for Cuban American family members living in the US to once every three years. This rule allows no exceptions for emergencies and narrows the definition of 'family' so that Cuban Americans can no longer visit or send money or packages to aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, or nephews.

Lifting the ban would mean that not only Cuban families would benefit, but also Cuba’s travel and tourist sector would benefit. The island’s small business sector, from restaurants owners to taxi drivers, artisans, families that provide lodging, and others, would gain economically from an increase in the number of US travelers.

An increase in trade between the US and Cuba would also grow. In 2004, despite severe restrictions on trade with Cuba, agricultural sales to Cuba from US farmers totaled about $450 million. A growth in this area would benefit both countries.

US farmers, hard hit by low prices and shrinking markets, recognize this benefit. Restrictions on trade, they say, prejudice sales to Cuba of foodstuffs like rice, meat, vegetables and fruits. Criticisms of the trade ban have been so loud that a bipartisan effort to ease restrictions on trade with Cuba is also working its way through Congress.

The administration also tightened restrictions on academic travel and cultural exchanges with Cuba, canceling approximately 90% of existing academic exchange programs. This Bush administration policy violates the principle of US law, specifically the Free Trade in Ideas Act of 2004, which prevents the President from prohibiting or otherwise restricting foreign travel undertaken for educational purposes.

It is time the US Congress adopts a realistic and mutually beneficial policy on trade and travel with Cuba. The pretense of looking for Communist bogeymen in order to satisfy a small group of campaign donors hurts all sides and seems silly and anachronistic.



--Joel Wendland can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.