Arkansas Governor Visits Cuba, Says State Well-Positioned For Trade

The goal of the trip is to find the best ways to “enhance opportunity for trade between United States and Cuba”, said Hutchinson, speaking ahead of a forum at Havana’s Hotel Nacional with Cuban and Arkansas businessmen.

Other states, including North Carolina, have sent delegations to the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama has used executive authority to relax parts of the comprehensive trade embargo of Cuba and has asked Congress to lift it completely. Hutchinson is a former congressman who supported the embargo and later helped enforce it as a federal Homeland Security official.

“What underscored the opportunity is a requirement for patience”, he said. “Once that is done, then let’s see commerce be extended and increase”.

“Sen. [John] Boozman is taking the lead in Washington for legislation that would authorize the extension of credit for agriculture sales”.

“They have to hear from the American people”, Hutchinson said of Republicans in Congress. “I don’t think big business should drive this decision”.

The delegation includes officials from Arkansas businesses such as Tyson Foods and Riceland Foods.

Those once-booming sales have faltered because Cuba prefers to buy on credit.

There has been a U.S. trade embargo on Havana in place since 1962, but a loophole allows USA food to be sold to Cuba for cash. “Secondly, we need to have a number of steps taken by the Cuban government in terms of economic reform that are compatible with the new dynamics of trade opportunities and future with the United States”. “We have to be patient with it. It is such an unbelievable market opportunity”.