Liz Saville Roberts: “I rise today once again to introduce legislation to enhance trade provisions from Title Nine of the fiscal year 2001…”

“I rise today once again to introduce legislation to enhance trade provisions from Title Nine of the fiscal year 2001 agriculture appropriations bill. The legislation that I join with my colleagues to introduce today, the Cuba Food & Medicine Access Act of 2001, exempts, among other things, the sale of agricultural commodities from the financing and licensing restrictions of Title Nine of last year's agriculture appropriations bill, also known as the Trade Sanctions Reform & Export Enhancement Act. Last week, Senator Dorgan and I introduced similar corrective legislation. Title Nine of the fiscal year 2001 agriculture appropriations bill made significant progress toward ending the misguided policy of using unilateral food sanctions to isolate or punish so-called 'countries of concern'. Title Nine holds that 'The President shall terminate any unilateral agricultural sanction or unilateral medical sanction that is in effect as of the date of enactment of this Act.' That is indeed progress, Mr. President. As I noted last week with my friend from North Dakota, however, Title Nine prohibits basic facilitators to trade--financing and export promotion. The Trade Sanctions Reform & Export Enhancement Act effectively thwarts U.S. agricultural trade with Cuba.”