Perhaps it is just me, but I think that the default state should be open trade (not necessarily completely open, but at least as open as possible). So “What do we get out of it?” should not be an argument to keep a restrictive status quo, instead we should be asking what we get from the sanctions. As far as I can tell we get nothing besides votes in Florida, and once Castro is gone I imagine even that benefit will start to dry up.
Fewer refugees, cheap pharmaceuticals, and we could ease tensions with Venezuela. Oh, and cigars.
What benefit is it to the US to continue the sanctions?
We have held this grudge for nearly half a century, longer than any other diplomatic snub. And why? Hasn’t Cuba proven that our cold shoulder can’t bring them down? Nothing raises the spirits of Communists like capitalist opression. Nothing kills communism like trade and prosperity. We are fools to continue our non-recognition.
I hear this a lot but I don’t think it’s the whole story. The embargo has been in place since 1960, and Florida did not figure in presidential politics until very recently. In fact, wasn’t the embargo strengthened after the shooting down of the Hermanos al Rescate planes?
Cheap pharmaceuticals? From Cuba? You’re joking, right?
Or do you mean cheap pharmaceuticals for Cubans from the US? Because that I would certainly agree with.
I would not say that once Fidel dies the Cuban government falls. It’s not just Raul, Cuban law has been structured to keep the communist party in power, and those who have power today will do everything they can to hold on to that power. And additionally they have seen the consequences of opening up to dissent from the fall of of the USSR, so I think after Fidel dies Cuba will remain status quo.
Sorry, and I meant to add, how exactly does trade with Cuba ease tensions with Venezuela?
Internal political capital in the form of the former Cuban exhiles. By and large American’s don’t really care one way or the other about Cuba and our relations. So…what would force a change in the status quo? What would compel the US to change its inertia toward Cuba that has been going for decades? I don’t see anything…while maintaining the status quo is basically easy.
I don’t think the refugee problem is a major issue. I have no idea what you mean by ‘cheap pharmaceuticals’ or how that would apply to the US. I don’t really think, by and large, most American’s (and certainly not the current administration) gives two shits about our relations with Venezuela…and I’m unconvinced that the US reaching out to Cuba would fix this in any case. As for cigars, I already conceeded that, for me, this would be big. I don’t find it a compelling issue however (ed. from the US/administrations perspective…its compelling enough for ME of course 
) to get the US to change a policy thats been going for decades.
‘should not’? Well, ok…I agree. However, reality has a way of rearing its ugly head…
-XT
Cuba produces them.
I realize that BG. Sorry. I guess my question is…what makes you think that the US would buy them? Assuming that the US WOULD buy them, what makes you think they would remain cheap after going through all the hoops and hurdles the FDA would put them through? Finally, assuming they could do all that and still be cheap, why is this a compelling reason for the US to drop the sanctions?
-XT
You were serious? Please provide a link to these cheap drugs from Cuba.
If Cuba produces cheap pharmaceuticals please explain to me why right now I have en email from a friend in Cuba who needs Xalatan (colirio) a glaucoma medicine and is asking me if I can help him. He can get it in Cuba but only with dollars and he can not afford it.
Try here, here, here, and here. As for price, I was just assuming they’d be cheaper than ours for the same reasons Canada’s are cheaper.
Probably a bad assumption. I’m not knocking Cuba’s quality control or manufacturing practices…but I have my doubts they are up to Canada’s standards. In addition they would essentially have to build their market and that would take time…even if its possible at all. They would have to get their drugs accepted through the FDA’s process, etc.
Its not a compelling reason for the US to drop sanctions. This is another example of a benifit for Cuba to HAVE the US drop the sanctions.
-XT
Bad assumption. And the links you posted mostly talk about biomedical research with an eye to export, as usual street level Cubans get the short end of the stick.
See, in a socialist economy, you can export goods really cheaply because you only have to pay your workers in company scrip rather than a convertable currency. So you have an export economy that can sell very cheaply, while the same products that are available cheaply to foreigners are insanely expensive (if available at all) to the locals.
Even if you sell the goods overseas at below cost, the rulers are happy because they get hard currency, selling these goods below cost is essentially another way to extract profit out of the local workforce.
Or you can even send the workers overseas. The people hiring them pay the Cuban government in hard currency, and the Cuban government decides for themselves how those workers get compensated, which certainly isn’t in hard currency. And that’s the magic of socialism for you.
I’ll admit I don’t know a great deal about the sanctions - why we are doing them, what it costs us to do them, what impact they have, etc. - but it seems to me that continuing them simply because we have always done so is a pretty weak argument. If there are legitimate, practical reasons for us to continue sanctions, by all means continue them. If they are simply a vestige from the cold war and we are just too stubborn/lazy to get around to dropping them, I’d say drop them.
Why is it a weak argument? It costs us nothing to continue these sanctions. Whatever economic effects they had were over and done with decades ago. We simply do without Cuban products (mostly sugar at the time and cigars IIRC). So…if it costs us nothing to continue them, why is this a weak argument? Perhaps you could go into some detail why you feel this way.
On the other hand, there would be POLITICAL costs to dropping those sanctions. In the long run I have no doubt that, if Cuba tosses off its communist trappings this would be a good thing…but in the mean time, in the short term, there would certainly be problems politically. So…the US would get nothing out of dropping the sanctions (at least no one has thus far come up with a real benifit), while there would be a very real political cost, in the short term at least. And lastly, by and large most American’s simply don’t give a shit about it one way or the other. So…why is the status quo a weak argument…
I’m sure someone could think of something legitimate and practical…I can’t. Thats besides the point. There is no compelling reason to drop the things…thats the key point. If there WAS a compelling reason, or if the majority of American’s WANTED them dropped, then thats what would happen.
Remember…this is the government we are talking about here. The only time things move rapidly is if there are compelling reasons for it to move rapidly…such as when the people are howling for something. The people AREN’T howling for the sanctions to be dropped…in fact, the only citizens making any kind of noise about Cuba at all pretty much don’t want those sanctions dropped.
Well…as you dont have the power to say one way or the other (and neither do I ), all I can say is…good luck with that.
-XT
You don’t think much like an accountant. Lost profits are essentially the same as a cost.
Not really. If anything, American politicians have more to gain than to lose.
I mentioned several. Lost profits, political bonus to any party who can be seen to be trying to fix Cuba–which is important since Florida is a key voting state, and lessening illegal immigration into Florida.
I imagine that it will mostly just depend on what Florida Cubans want. If they look like, once Castro is dead, they would like for the US to start moving in, then we’ll move in. I don’t think we’d have any choice not to.
And personally, I don’t see why they would want us to continue he embargo once Castro is dead. Why do you think they would want that?
Another vote for lifting sanctions. Frankly, I consider it our most embarrassing foreign policy. As for why, xtisme, the reason is simple humanitarianism. We resorted to sanctions because it was the strongest weapon in the arsenal short of invasion to express our displeasure with Castro’s having nationalized American business interests without compensation. That and the Cuban Missile Crisis are what earned Castro our undying emnity. (As has been mentioned, the Cuban-American element of the equation is of recent vintage.) The problem is, and always has been, that sanctions don’t hurt him very much. He’s at the top of the pyramid and doing just fine, thank you. Indeed, as others have pointed out, sanctions have probably helped him hold onto power. Who suffers from sanctions are the common people, because their economy is held back.
We trade with China. We trade with Vietnam. When they were still around, we traded with the Soviets. We cozy up to the Saudis, who are some of the biggest totalitarians on the planet. Why not Cuba? Inertia, and because there’s not enough in it for us. Shame on us.