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On Petit Jean, State, Cuba Leaders Talk Trade, Agriculture

2 min read

Officials and agriculture leaders from Arkansas, across the country and Cuba will gather Monday and Tuesday at The Cuba Consortium Agriculture & Food Roundtable at Petit Jean in Morrilton.

The event, hosted by the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, Winrock International and the Howard Baker Forum, will focus on the warming U.S. relations with Cuba — specifically Arkansas agriculture and Cuba’s relations with the state.

Speakers at the invite-only consortium include Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle and Ruben Ramos from the Embassy of Cuba. U.S. Sen. John Boozman and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford will participate via Skype.

The program came together through a discussion between Rodney Ferguson, Winrock’s president and CEO, and Marta Loyd, executive director of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. According to Loyd, Ferguson is a member of the Cuba Consortium based in Washington, D.C. and the two thought Arkansas would be a great location for a conference.

“It’s our hope that we’re bringing together a diverse group of people who are involved with agriculture or Cuban history or Cuban trade or government,” Loyd said. “We’re bringing them all to the same place so that they can have a conversation about how we can move forward and what the challenges are.”

The Cuba Consortium is an assembly of companies, nonprofits, investors, academics and entrepreneurs organized to track and examine the normalization process in both countries. The group aims to inform and prepare its members for opportunities to engage Cuba.

The roundtable will address how normalizing relations with the Caribbean nation could affect the American food and agriculture sector.

Janet Harris, program director at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, called the current embargo with Cuba “very complicated.” She also said the primary trade interest with the country would be rice, a key Arkansas export. But Cuba can’t buy rice from the U.S. on credit because of the embargo.

“We’re very excited to be taking part in this discussion,” Harris said. “Relations with the Cuban people will evolve and we want our agriculture industry well positioned to take advantage of that.”

According to Loyd, there are many obstacles to overcome in order to create a healthy relationship with Cuba.

“The first thing the Cuba Consortium is interested in is improving the lives of the Cuban people,” Loyd said. “On both sides obviously there are things that the Cuban people are concerned with … There’s the embargo situation that needs to be resolved, human rights issues. On both sides there are a number of things that need to happen.”

On Monday, President Obama began the second day of a three-day trip to Cuba, making him the first U.S. president to visit the country in 88 years. Last year, Hutchinson became the first sitting U.S. governor to visit Cuba since the two countries re-established diplomatic ties.

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