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 Even with Castro's resignation, no one expects any quick changes in the economic standoff between the two nations.
The embargo, which began in 1960 during the Eisenhower administration with a ban on U.S. exports to Cuba except for food and medicine, was extended on Feb. 7, 1962, by President Kennedy to ban all imports from Cuba to the United States, including the Cuban cigars that Kennedy had a special fondness for. The aim was to financially strangle Cuba and force a change in the communist-run government.
Opponents of the embargo contend it had exactly the opposite effect, giving Castro a convenient foreign bogeyman to blame for all of the economic failings of the communist system. It certainly did not have the desired effect of toppling Castro, who has seen nine U.S. presidents come and go.
The Bush administration was blunt in reacting to the news Tuesday that the ailing Castro, 81, was resigning as president, saying there would not be any changes in the embargo until there were significant changes in Cuba's government, including free and fair elections.
Castro's announcement prompted the State Department to say that the Cuban leader was being replaced with "Fidel lite" and "dictator lite" in referring to Castro's brother Raul.
But the United States is virtually alone in its support of economic sanctions. The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in October to urge the United States to end its trade embargo, passing the resolution by a 184-4 vote, the highest margin ever on similar Cuban embargo resolutions.
U.S. lawmakers and business groups, who have seen their foreign competitors take advantage of opportunities in Cuba, said they believed the trade and travel restrictions will be lifted eventually, but not any time soon.
They said any significant changes will have to wait until the next U.S. president takes office and even then, change may not come quickly, given the tangled history of the two nations.
A group of more than 100 House members sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday urging the Bush administration to launch a complete review of U.S. policies toward Cuba.
"Our policy toward Cuba is a relic of the Cold War. It makes no sense and quite frankly is an embarrassment," one of the signers of the letter, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said.
Lawmakers pushing for change in Congress have some powerful allies, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who has criticized the administration for throwing up unnecessary roadblocks to efforts by American farmers and ranchers to export food to Cuba.
In 2000, during the Clinton administration, Congress passed a law allowing cash sales of food and agriculture products to Cuba. The United States sold $447 million to Cuba last year, a tiny fraction of total U.S. exports of $1.6 trillion last year. Leading exports to Cuba are meat, corn, wheat and rice.
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 On the presidential trail, the top candidates were careful in their comments on Tuesday. Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain said the United States needs to look for ways to encourage democratic reforms in Cuba. Obama went the furthest on the embargo issue, saying it should be eased if Cuba's new leaders begin "opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."
The candidates are expected to tread lightly during the campaign on the question of lifting the embargo, given the sensitivity of the issue in states with high populations of Cuban immigrants such as Florida.
Some analysts said the removal of the embargo may begin in the next administration with small steps, such as loosening current tight restrictions on who can travel to Cuba. But analysts cautioned against expecting any rapid changes, given the magnitude of problems that will have to be addressed before economic relations can be fully normalized.
One big issue is the compensation being demanded by Cuban exiles whose property was seized when the communists took control of the island nearly 50 years ago.
Gary Hufbauer, an economist with the Peterson Institute, a Washington think tank, said any normalization of relations would have only a slight impact on the U.S. economy because Cuba is such a small market. He said agriculture and tourism would see modest gains.
He said Cuba would get a boost if it could once again export to the United States, but he said it has been the communist system, rather than the U.S. trade embargo, that has been the major factor depressing living standards in Cuba.
"Some people say that the embargo deprived Cuba of economic resources," Hufbauer said. "But the main reason Cuba is poor is that its economic system is crummy and has been for a long time,"
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On the Net:
CIA World Factbook on Cuba:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/
the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html
[Associated
Press; By MARTIN CRUTSINGER]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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