This is an up date on the story that I first picked up on in February. I feel like they are taking the right approach and if the public helps by backing their efforts the day when we will be able to enjoy some of the fine products produced by the country just 90 miles to our south. "Communist" country is a joke, China, Vietnam, and Russia are all communist countries and we do business with all of them. We lost more men fighting the Communists in Vietnam than we did in Cuba, but we for some stupid reason we have this bug in our bonnet when it comes to Cuba.
Pennsylvania's
Cuban rum run got its start in a chance meeting last fall in the parking lot in
front of the state Capitol. "'You
know, we have rum,'" a visiting Cuban government liaison told state Sen.
Chuck McIlhinney, who was walking to his car when he was introduced to her as
the senator whose committee oversees how alcohol is sold in Pennsylvania.
"And I'm like, 'Yeah, we should buy some.'" A few months later, the agency that controls
Pennsylvania's 600-plus state-owned wine and liquor stores is working to lift
the United States' 55-year-old embargo on Cuban rum, one of the island nation's
best-known products.
A purchase of
Cuban rum by the sixth-most populous state would be, by all accounts, the
biggest shipment of Cuban rum to the U.S. since John F. Kennedy was president,
and could pave the way for the nation's private spirits wholesalers to follow
suit. The embargo is on virtually all
imports from and exports to Cuba, including rum. If Pennsylvania is successful,
it would be the first import of a product produced entirely by the Communist
state. The administration of former President Barack Obama allowed imports of
charcoal produced by worker-owned cooperatives.
In recent
days, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board submitted the initial paperwork to
begin the application process, an agency spokeswoman said, and is now working
to provide additional documentation required by the federal government. There's reason for hope. The federal government office that enforces
the Cuban embargo has begun granting licenses to allow limited exchanges of
goods and services under regulations written by the Obama administration that
reflect his 2014 move to restore diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Private
wholesalers are already exploring the avenue, according to Pennsylvania Liquor
Control Board officials. Neither the Cuban Embassy nor the Treasury Department,
which encompasses the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, would answer The
Associated Press' questions about it, although the embassy issued a statement
acknowledging Pennsylvania is "interested in building a business
relationship" with Cuba's state-run bottler. Pennsylvania
bolstered its relationships in Cuba in February when McIlhinney invited liquor
board officials to join a delegation to the country that grew out of an
athletic exchange program. The argument
Pennsylvania submits to the assets control office must dovetail with U.S.
policy and must show how bringing Cuban rum will benefit Pennsylvania and the
economy, Freyre said.
It's not clear
how long a decision will take. The
Department of State will want to review the application, Freyre said, and the
assets control office is both short-handed and overwhelmed with interest in
applications involving Cuban commerce. "This
is not a 'gimme,'" Freyre said. "This is not a, 'you file and you
will get it.' They have very broad discretion. It could be an exercise of many,
many months, if not a year." The
process will be inevitably political, McIlhinney said, and state officials are
working to get Pennsylvania's congressional delegation on board to advance the
cause. For McIlhinney, the whole thing
seems silly: What's the point of an embargo any longer? The Soviets are gone,
he said.
"I don't
think that there's a national security risk," McIlhinney said. "It's
not like we're sending computer technology or missiles or something. We're
talking about buying a rum."
Read More at http://www.post-gazette.com/life/drinks/2017/05/01/Pennsylvania-US-embargo-Cuban-rum-wine-liguor-stores/stories/201705010097
