Cuba and the Sugar Quota
ALEXANDER, ROBERT J.
By Robert J. Alexander Cuba and the Sugar Quota U.S. economic reprisals against Castro Government would harm good-neighbor policy CONGRESS will shortly have to make a decision which will...
...citizens' properties...
...The present Sugar Act comes up for renewal at the end of June...
...Until 1934 we had the right (written into the Cuban constitution at our insistence) to intervene in Cuban internal affairs if we so desired, and even since that privilege was given up, the U.S...
...retaliate" for Cuban expropriation of U.S...
...The commercial accord with the USSR should be judged in this context...
...It would also play into the hands of those in Castro's government who would like to take Cuba into the neutralist camp as well as those, like the Communists, who would like Cuba to change sides in the continuing cold war...
...There are indications that elements in the Cuban Government are preparing to use this weapon...
...to cut this and other advantages out...
...sugar market, particularly for Mexico, a good friend, our closest Latin American neighbor, and a country which has only in recent years become a sugar exporter...
...Russia agreed to take a million tons a year for the next five years and the Cubans will, therefore...
...economic reprisals against Castro Government would harm good-neighbor policy CONGRESS will shortly have to make a decision which will meas-sure its ability to take statesmanlike action in the face of considerable provocation...
...The quickest wav to reinforce Latin American solidarity with Castro and encourage neutralism is for the U.S...
...Two other points must be taken into consideration...
...Vast numbers of these common people also wish to effect similar land reforms and other programs of the kind Castro has inaugurated since coming to power...
...Even before Fidel Castro's revolution there was considerable pressure to reduce the Cuban share of our market...
...large rural unemployment, permanent and seasonal...
...They have predicted that sooner or later the U.S...
...Because of our deplorable record in support of dictatorial regimes in Latin America and as a result of inadequate aid to the region, Communist arguments are receiving wide acceptance and adding to the already widespread hostility toward us...
...will quite naturally turn its gun on this country...
...Cuba is a sovereign nation with a right to reorganize its internal affairs...
...Its basic element is redistribution of the arable land which has for a century been held in relatively few hands...
...has tended to overshadow all public affairs...
...Inept statements by the late Secretarv of State John Foster Dulles and bv other top U.S...
...the U.S...
...Cutting Puerto Rico's quota can be justified by the decline in that island's sugar industry due to shifting land from cane growing to other uses, and also by the fact that Puerto Rico has for the past three years been unable to meet its quota...
...Thus, the Cubans would have a predictable amount of dollar foreign exchange for their industrialization plans and other needs, and most, though not all, of the increase from any growth in American consumption...
...It does not...
...On first hearing, these arguments may sound quite convincing...
...Based as they are on considerations of "national defense," their claims are of dubious validity because beet-sugar producers tended to shift to more profitable crops during World War II...
...Cutting the Cuban sugar quota would be widely interpreted in Latin America as the beginning of U.S...
...Like most Latin Americans, Cubans have the firm belief that industrialization is the key to higher living standards and "economic independence...
...On the other hand, a sober, balanced attitude on our part will benefit us elsewhere in Latin America...
...Pressure against the Cubans also has come from other Latin American countries anxious to improve their situations or to gain entry into the U.S...
...Castro Government measures to acquire "economic independence" of the U.S...
...Lastly, Cuba might be reassured of its present position in the U.S...
...It is to our advantage not to put ourselves in a position where, rightly or wrongly, these difficulties may be blamed on us...
...sugar consumption during the next five years...
...Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic are among those seeking larger quota shares, and there have been rumors that Brazil, which has no quota at all, would like to obtain one...
...Cuban sugar production may drop, inflation run rampant, and other disasters befall the island...
...Castro's industrialization program is fundamental and important...
...Cuba's favored position in the U.S...
...to seem to be opposing the legitimate social and economic objectives of the Cuban revolution...
...market for the first time...
...Several Congressmen and a number of newspapers have urged that the U.S...
...has had a preponderant place in both the country's economic and internal political situations...
...The effect of the reduction might be offset by increasing the proportion of refined sugar which Puerto Rico may ship to the mainland under the quota, thus aiding the island's industrialization effort...
...should be clearly understood...
...In addition, along with our other supplier, Cuba has enjoyed a price above the "world market" price—currently it is about two-thirds higher...
...sugar market should, therefore, be maintained...
...Newspapers which state that Cubans have fallen into a trap in this agreement are mistaken...
...The State Department has accepted this position and clarified it in statements at home and in Cuba...
...Communists and other enemies of the U.S...
...This would seem to be a challenge to the U.S...
...Still others have made charges, with little substantiation, that the Castro regime is "Communist" and that it would be "dangerous" to depend on Cuba for our sugar supply...
...Cuba's sugar crop has been running about 5.5 million tons a year, of which the U.S...
...have been working overtime to exploit this sympathy...
...Castro and his rebels have caught the imagination of the humble people who, in many countries, wish they could destroy their own military cliques as Castro destroyed Cuba's...
...Those whose duty it is to write a new Sugar Act should remember that the present Cuban leaders are carrying out a profound revolution, long overdue, and welcomed by the great majority of Cubans...
...Regrettably, Latin Americans still remember the era of the "Big Stick," though we have all but forgotten it...
...Some reduction in their quota would, therefore, seem justifiable...
...If we cut the sugar quota, we shall give an important weapon to those Cubans, and others, who wish to depict the United States as the cause of whatever difficulties Cuba may endure in the years immediately ahead...
...At the same time, it would be advisable, if possible, to meet requests of other countries seeking a somewhat larger share of the U.S...
...Its decision will have a serious impact on our deteriorating relations with Latin America and it is to be hoped that the statesmanlike long view will win out over any passing desire for "revenge" and over any special local interests...
...Admittedly, Castro and some of his associates have on several occasions gone to absurd extremes in imputations and accusations about U.S...
...A violently nationalist regime such as Castro's...
...the fact is, however, that alteration of the Cuban position at this time would be disastrous in our future relations with Cuba and with the rest of Latin America...
...In the new agreement signed by Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan...
...Similarly, rumors circulated by Government newspapers in Havana have it that President Eisenhower is going to recommend a cut in Cuba's sugar quota, which seems to be preparing for a propaganda campaign on this issue if and when the the cut occurs...
...This has given rise to a vigorous competition among all suppliers, and some potential suppliers, eager for special advantages...
...Major Ernesto Guevara, Castro's economic "czar," recently made the astonishing comment that U.S...
...Reducing the Puerto Rican quota would be first...
...Argentina has had such problems in dealing with the USSR, but it seems likely that the trade agreement is of sufficient political significance for the Soviet Union so that it will supply Cuba with the products it genuinely wants...
...Intervention today can be variously interpreted...
...has been buying slightly more than 3 million tons, leaving the Cubans with 2.5 million tons to be peddled elsewhere every year...
...The cane and beet producers in this country, for example, have for decades been able to convince Congress that it must give them a sizable and increasing proportion of national sugar consumption, and they now would like even more...
...Since the Castro Revolution on January 1, 1959, arguments for reducing Cuba's quota have multiplied...
...Since the middle 1930s, sugar imports have been regulated by a series of acts which fix quotas for all domestic and foreign suppliers of the U.S...
...The principal difficulty will be in getting Soviet products they want to buy for the other 80 per cent...
...premiums for Cuban sugar were a means of "enslaving" his country...
...Cutting Cuba's quota would be interpreted by Cubans as an attempt to thwart their revolution and to hamper their industrialization program, and would probably alter the fundamentally friendly attitude most Cubans still have for the U.S...
...Others have wanted to punish Cuban audacity for signing a trade agreement with the Soviet Union...
...motives and policies...
...only has the right to see that its citizens are not discriminated against and that seizure of property is done in conformity with Cuban and international law...
...Secondly, it is highly probable that Cuba will endure a severe economic crisis during the profound social and economic change through which it is now passing...
...First is that the history of our relations with the late unlamented Batista dictatorship was characterized by a friendliness on the part of U.S...
...As one of the world's most economical producers and a close neighbor, Cuba has from the beginning had a sizable share of the total fixed by these acts...
...grinding poverty, with its consequent miserable housing...
...The United States has little to gain by doing precisely what its opponents claim that it will do...
...Opening our domestic market a bit more to Mexico and to one or two other Latin American countries—though, under the circumstances, not to Tru-jillo's Dominican Republic—which, in any case, would supply only a small fraction of our needs, might be achieved by three measures...
...Many Latin Americans feel that we intervened on behalf of the area's many dictators by giving them medals, military missions, arms and other help in keeping themselves in power...
...and almost no social services in rural areas...
...And from the Cuban point of view, the agreement was highly advantageous...
...At issue is the quota granted to Cuba under the Sugar Act...
...Domestic sugar-beet producers are an elastic source of supply and wartime experiences indicate that they can shift to other crops with relative ease, if encouraged to do so, which is not the case with cane growers...
...This concentration of land ownership has resulted in emphasizing a limited number of export crops, principally sugar...
...Nevertheless, unwise and ill-tempered remarks by Cuba's leaders are not sufficient justification for taking measures which will hurt all the Cuban people and will, moreover, tend to bear out what Castro says about us...
...would "intervene" in Cuba to oust Castro as, they say, it did to the Arbenz regime in Guatemala...
...The Cuban revolution has had reverberations throughout Latin America...
...in seeking to show itself, its people and the world at large, that it is not, like its predecessors, under the influence of Uncle Sam...
...Latins are aware of the charges made against us by some Cuban leaders: if the facts do not bear out those dire predictions, the leaders of the Castro Government will be discredited, not our leaders...
...citizens to think that we will intervene in Cuba...
...therefore, seem as unreasonable to most Latin Americans as it does to U.S...
...Since the Spanish-American War, the U.S...
...lowering domestic beet-sugar producers' quotas would be second...
...Cubans are prepared to tighten their belts a good deal to make this program possible...
...Government and business interests, who went out of their way to show friendship to one of the most sadistic and tyrannical regimes in recent Latin American history...
...They believe, therefore, that there can be interventions short of sending the Marines and that non-military intervention may also only be a prelude to military intervention, particularly in view of Eisenhower's threat to send Marines to Venezuela when Vice President Nixon was stoned and spat on there...
...intervention against Castro and would deepen the already grave suspicions of U.S...
...and third would be to give Mexico some part of the increase which is likely to take place in U.S...
...Because a fair proportion of the country's best farm land was in American hands, redistribution of U.S...
...have assured markets for almost 80 per cent of their output, instead of the previous 60 per cent...
...Cuba has not always been successful in doing so either, and presently has a backlog of some 1.5 million tons...
...And this is important for the future because Castro does not enjoy among many Latin American leaders the popularity he enjoys among the rank and file...
...Rightly or wrongly, many of them saw the Guatemalan incident as a revival of that "Big Stick" policy...
...officials at the time reinforced this opinion...
...Finally, since 1903, Cuba has enjoyed a 20 per cent tariff advantage over all other foreign sugar suppliers...
...They will be paid in dollars for 200.000 tons a year, and for the remainder—80 per cent—in Soviet goods...
...Within the next few weeks, discussion of the Sugar Act will be one of Congress' first order of business...
...Another objective of the Castro regime has been to diversify the economy by growing new crops and establishing new manufacturing industries, and in so doing, achieve a wider range of markets...
...Real statesmanship will be required of our Congressmen if they are to resist the various accumulated pressures to "penalize" Cuba...
...market...
...They will be able to get rid of a sizable portion of their crop for which thev have hitherto had no sure market...
...In time, strong divergences of interest and opinion are likely to develop between Cuban leaders and the democratic leaders of other Latin American countries which will go far toward thwarting any Cuban attempt to build a neutralist group under their leadership...
...holdings was inevitable...
Vol. 43 • March 1960 • No. 12
