Journal of Commerce / Opinion EDITORIAL
A bill to provide $8 billion in aid to farmers is stalled in Congress largely because of a dispute over a provision that would allow sales of food and medicine to Cuba.
The Clinton administration is resisting the measure because the bill would make it more difficult for the president to impose embargoes on other countries in the future by requiring congressional approval first. Administration officials say it would have "grave implications for our nonproliferation, counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics initiatives."
Obviously, those initiatives are important to national security. On the other hand, both the administration and Congress have been far too quick to impose trade sanctions in recent years, even though experience shows that unilateral trade sanctions don't work.
The whole trade embargo on Cuba makes no sense and should be lifted immediately. Likewise, there should be no embargoes on medicine, while food embargoes should only be permitted when the administration can certify that the food is being shipped to the military and denied to ordinary civilians.
Meanwhile, Congress needs to improve this bill by providing additional emergency assistance to farmers in the East who were devastated by drought during the spring and early summer, only to find that what was left of their crops was destroyed by Hurricane Floyd. The farm-assistance package includes $500 million for weather-related losses, well short of the $1.2 billion that's needed, not counting damage in North Carolina from Hurricane Floyd, according to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.
Failure to provide such emergency assistance is intolerable. If Congress can't agree on the trade provisions of the farm bill, it should pass the aid package separately.:
