The Center for Democracy in the Americas recently discussed the economic embargo with former Secretary of Agriculture John Block. The Secretary pointed out that very different policies have been used with those other countries the United States opposes on similar grounds—China and Vietnam, for example—and that long-standing Cuba policy is not only inconsistent in this sense, but is detrimental to certain U.S. sectors (like agriculture) that miss out on the benefits that normal diplomatic and trade relations would bring.
Block’s comments correspond to his historic stance on these issues: in the years previous to his appointment by Ronald Reagan to the post of Secretary of Agriculture, he participated in several fact-finding and people-to-people trade commission trips to countries that included the Soviet Union and China.
Listen to his comments here:
