CubaTrade-April2017-FLIPBOOK

TRADE
Photo by Michael Newsome
THE PENNSYLVANIA
RUM PLAY
Pennsylvania legislators flew to
Havana with a simple idea for
getting around the 55-year-old
embargo against Cuba: Trade
agricultural products for rum
By Brian O’Neill
The first idea Pennsylvania’s delegation
to Cuba had was a simple trade: food for
rum. Two days into their late February
trip to Havana, the plan got even simpler:
Just buy a boatload of rum for state liquor
stores and forget the embargo. Republican
state senate leaders say the 21st
Amendment—which ended Prohibition
30 years before the embargo began—gives
each state absolute control over alcoholic
beverages.
“You can’t just suspend the federal
constitution,” said state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney,
a Bucks County Republican and
chair of the state Senate Law and Justice
Committee.
A Pennsylvania play for Cuban rum
would be an extraordinary move at a time
when eased Cuban-American relations
under President Barack Obama have given
way mostly to guesses about President
Donald Trump’s stance. Toss in conservative
Keystone Republicans venturing into
one of the last outposts of socialism—
along with bureaucrats who have their
own spin on the art of the deal—and the
plot gets as thick as Cuban molasses.
If McIlhinney is right, Pennsylvania
may have a winning constitutional argument
to bypass the embargo. The Liquor
Control Board (LCB) is consulting its
lawyers and planning a strategy that could
end with Pennsylvania being the only
place to buy Cuban rums—though likely
not before a court battle.
Federal impoundment of cases of
Cuban rum at the Philadelphia docks
until the case is decided in court wouldn’t
be the worst publicity, either. That surely
would make national news and increase
U.S. appetite for the long-taboo spirits.
It seems more likely Pennsylvania
would seek a declaratory judgment. A
federal judge could issue a legally binding
decision before any rum leaves Cuba.
The irony of the state LCB being a
vehicle for reform is lost on no one in the
state house. Senate President Joe Scarnati
said, albeit with a smile on his face, that this
transaction would be “from one controlled
state to another.” Sen. McIlhinney said that
such a deal would do more to help capitalism
than the embargo ever did. And as
far as dealing with a socialist state, he said,
“The Russians are gone. I didn’t see any.”
If the deal does move forward, the
multi-day talks Pennsylvania state officials
34 CUBATRADE APRIL 2017