Allow Americans to travel to Cuba

 

Cuba travel will increase trade

 

The U.S. embargo against Cuba includes restrictions not only on trade with Cuba, but also on travel to the island.  Most U.S. citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba and U.S. tourist travel to the island is completely banned.  The travel restrictions not only infringe upon American citizens’ right to travel, they also inhibit agricultural trade opportunities.  If Americans were allowed to travel freely to Cuba, U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba would increase. 

 

Ø      Unrestricted travel to Cuba will generate new revenue in Cuba, and increase the amount of Cuban resources available for purchasing U.S. agricultural products. 

Ø      Travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens will create additional demand in Cuba for American products and U.S. tourism in Cuba would increase the demand for high quality U.S. food products there. 

 

Farmers and Farm Bureaus who have visited Cuba agree with this assessment:

 

Ø      “[American Farm Bureau President Bob] Stallman said Congress should lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling there.  Not only would that provide additional resources for Cuba to use to buy food from the United States, Stallman said the increased interaction between U.S. and Cuban citizens would bring about change and greater freedom in Cuba,” noted a Texas Farm Bureau web site article. (“FB delegation finds promising market in Cuba,” 11/22/02, www.txfb.org)

 

Ø      A Calumet, Oklahoma farmer, Henry Jo Von Tungeln, who visited Cuba in 2001: “To really get trade going, we need to lift the travel restrictions.” (The Oklahoman article reprinted in Cuban Daily News Digest, 12/28/02)

 

Ø      South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation president David Winkles commented, “Cuban agricultural imports of U.S. commodities have grown from zero to $250 million in just a year.  Trade officials there anticipate that number will grow to $1 billion by 2005, even with current trade and travel restrictions in place.  Just imagine what U.S. farmers could make if the cash-only trade restrictions were lifted.” (“SC Farm Bureau leader back from Cuba mission,” Orangeburg Times & Democrat, 12/1/02)

 

Cuba Travel Restrictions Are Unfair

 

Ø      Travel restrictions infringe upon American citizens’ right to travel.  Former Supreme Court Justice William Douglas said, “freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart…it often makes all other rights meaningful.” While the Supreme Court has allowed travel bans on the basis of national security in the past, Cuba is not a security threat to the United States. Congress and the Administration continue to uphold restrictions on travel to Cuba, while allowing Americans the right to travel to other communist nations, including North Korea, China, and Vietnam.

 

Ø      Cuba is not a security threat to the U.S. or its citizens and Americans should be allowed to travel there. Several Bush Administration officials have charged that Cuba has “a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.” But the claim is misleading and the Administration has provided no evidence for it, citing only Cuba’s advanced biotechnology sector. U.S. lists of states that possess biological or chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction or advanced conventional munitions don’t include Cuba. None of the reports issued by the Defense Department, the CIA or other U.S. government agencies in the last three years have listed Cuba as a threat to the U.S. or other countries.  Prior to his May 2002 trip to Cuba, former President Jimmy Carter was briefed by U.S. State Department and intelligence officials, who assured him that Cuba posed no terrorist threat to the U.S.  On his trip, Carter had unlimited access to all of Cuba’s biotechnology facilities. The Administration’s claim is unsupported, and seems to be politically motivated. (For more information, visit http://www.ciponline.org/cuba.)

 

Cuba Travel Restrictions are Counter-Productive

 

Ø      Travel restrictions prevent exchange and understanding between the two nations.    The travel ban severely limits opportunities to promote cultural understanding between Cubans and Americans and impedes improved relations between the two countries.  Increased contact between Americans and Cubans would help dispel stereotypes and promote mutual understanding.  Some critics of the Cuban government also believe that increased contact between Americans and Cubans would facilitate democratic change on the island.  Former Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) commented, “We’re not going to weaken Castro’s grip on power by keeping Americans from traveling there. If we want to create change in Cuba, let good, average American citizens interface with Cubans.”

 

Ø      The benefits of cultural exchange outweigh the costs of “propping up the regime.” Supporters of travel restrictions to Cuba argue that U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba would generate income for the Cuban government and thus prop up the regime. If millions of American tourists were to visit Cuba, this would boost the Cuban economy significantly, but the benefits of exchange between Americans and Cubans far outweigh whatever may be the costs of strengthening the Cuban economy. Allowing Americans to travel freely to Cuba would promote genuine people to people contact between U.S. and Cuban citizens, an approach that would benefit American political and economic interests, and have a more constructive impact on Cuba itself, than the current failed policy of isolation. Furthermore, the notion that by denying the Cuban government revenue from U.S. travelers we are undermining the regime is wrong. Cuba has survived without U.S. tourism for years.  A strategy of starving the Cuban government by restricting U.S. travel is ineffective since millions of tourists from Canada and Europe visit the island each year.

 

An end to the ban on travel to Cuba would benefit U.S.

citizens, American farmers and the people of Cuba. 

It is time Americans are allowed to travel freely to Cuba.