March2017-Flipbook

editors note
Taking it to the Hill
Our cover story this month looks at the legislative initiatives
inside the U.S. Congress to either loosen the restrictions to trade
and travel with Cuba, or to end the embargo outright.
Make no mistake. It will not be an easy fight for these new
bills to win passage.
Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans
(including Cuban Americans) support lifting the embargo,
there remains strong resistance to change from a handful of Cuban
American senators and congressmen who continue to hold
our national policy hostage. They accomplish this by blocking any
new bills from coming to the floor of the Senate or House, where
an open vote could turn them into law.
Now all eyes are on the new president, Donald Trump, to
see whether he will be open to change—or if he will fall to the
blandishments of Cuban American legislators who cannot let
go of grievances that date back a half century. Trying to figure
out which way he will lean is the Cuba game of the moment, as
all interested parties read signs in the tea leaves of his cabinet
appointments—or in his most recent dinner guests.
What is important to understand, however, is that the president
does not have the exclusive executive power to abolish the
embargo. President Obama advocated for its end, and punched
enough holes in the rules and regulations to move things forward.
But the embargo still stands, and those advances can now
be reversed by Trump.
Even if the new president chooses to move forward, Congress
must still weigh in. When the embargo was started by
Eisenhower and made comprehensive by Kennedy, it was a matter
of executive order. After 1992, things changed. The embargo
became a U.S. law that was tightened by additional legislation
in 1994 and 1996. And those laws will require Congressional
action to undo.
Yes, a presidential signoff must nonetheless accompany the
passage of any pro-engagement, anti-embargo legislation. The
president can still veto any new bills, and the odds of overcoming
any presidential veto, historically speaking, are about one
in ten. The hope for all those who find the embargo to be both
useless and cruel is that President Trump, having been elected by
a populist movement, will head the voices of that movement—
and not fall prey to a contentious minority holding onto a Cold
War mentality. H
J.P. Faber. Editor-in-Chief
Publisher
Richard Roffman
Editor-in-Chief
J.P.Faber
Executive Publisher
Todd W. Hoffman
Associate Publisher
Ritchie Lucas
Art Director
Jon Braeley
Production Manager
Toni Kirkland
Associate Editor
Nick Swyter
Copy Editor
Larry Luxner
Writers
Michael Deibert
Doreen Hemlock
Suzette Laboy
Victoria Mckenzie
Emilio Morales
Oscar Musibay
Ana Radelat
Ariana H. Reguant
Photographers
Mark Finkenstaedt
Bahare Khodabande
Tina-Jane Krohn
Monique LaRouche
Matias J. Ocner
Vice President Sales
Sherry Adams
Sales Executive
Magguie Marina
Research & Development
Sydney Glanz
Aviation Consultant
Lauren Stover
Cuba Trade Magazine is published each month by Third Circle Publishing, LLC,
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8 CUBATRADE MARCH 2017