02.12.15

Durbin, Bipartisan Senators Introduce Bill To Lift Cuban Embargo

Bipartisan legislation would pave the way for new economic opportunities for American businesses and farmers by boosting U.S. exports and allowing Cubans greater access to American goods

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced bipartisan legislation to lift the Cuban trade embargo. Cosponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the bill will eliminate the legal barriers to Americans doing business in Cuba. The Freedom to Export to Cuba Act will pave the way for new economic opportunities for American businesses and farmers by boosting U.S. exports and allow Cubans greater access to American goods.

“Lifting the trade embargo will open new markets for businesses and farmers in Illinois and across America,” said Durbin. “But normalizing trade and travel relations with this country just 90 miles off our coast is about more than that—it’s about opening Cuba to new ideas, new values, and improved human rights that our 50 year old policy of isolation could not achieve. While we must be realistic about the prospects for Congressional action to fully lift the embargo on Cuba, when a single senator can scuttle it, the American people are ready for this change and my colleagues and I are committed to getting it done.”  

The Freedom to Export to Cuba Act repeals the current legal restrictions against doing business with Cuba, including the original 1961 authorization for establishing the trade embargo; amends subsequent laws that required enforcement of the embargo; and amends other restrictive statutes that include provisions prohibiting transactions between US-owned or controlled firms and Cuba, and limiting direct shipping between US and Cuban ports.

 

Last month, Senator Durbin introduced the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act to lift the travel portion of the embargo. The bill is cosponsored by Senators Flake, Leahy, Boozman, Udall, Moran, Whitehouse, and Klobuchar.

 

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