Charles Rangel: “right now in the Committee on Ways and Means there is a lot of discussion going on in reporting out a Central American…”

“right now in the Committee on Ways and Means there is a lot of discussion going on in reporting out a Central American Free Trade Agreement, which includes the Dominican Republic. This is part of an effort on the part of our great country to try to open up the doors and to make certain we give an opportunity to people throughout the world, but especially those in our own hemisphere to have an opportunity for a better quality of life. This concept has been extended to Communist China, to North Korea, and to other countries. But here, we believe, in Cuba, it has nothing to do with anything except politics. It has nothing to do with the economy. It has everything to do with a small group of people in Florida. With all due respect to their strong feelings against Castro, it would seem to many of us that the best way to get rid of a dictator is to really open up the country; to be able to go to send remittances to families; to be able to travel; but certainly to be able to have an exchange of commodities between their country and ours. It seems to me that American businesses are losing billions of dollars by not being able to trade. And who is being hurt? It is certainly not Castro. It is the poor people in the country.…”