MB Civic

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Mon, Apr. 09, 2007

Idaho governor going to Cuba
By JOHN MILLER

(AP) — Like other states before it, Idaho is
turning to Cuba in search of new markets
for its products.

With Cuba’s communist dictator Fidel
Castro ailing, Idaho Gov. C.L. ”Butch” Otter
is among those optimistic that political
change will help turn the island’s 11 million
residents into big consumers. In March,
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman was the
latest U.S. official to visit Cuba, which
bought $340 million (euro254.2 million) in
U.S. farm products in 2006.

Otter and his 35-member entourage are
scheduled to travel to Cuba on Tuesday for
a four-day trade mission, ”He’s going
down there to sell groceries,” said Jon
Hanian, Otter’s spokesman. “It’s an
opportunity to make some sales.”

In a speech last month, Otter told
reporters he had a ”respectful”
relationship with Castro. The United States
has a trade embargo with Cuba that
exempts food, and does not allow residents
to visit the island nation. It accuses Cuba of
jailing political dissidents.

”The thing that irritates me the most
about the State Department’s policy
toward Cuba is that it is not a policy
toward Cuba,” Otter said at an Idaho Press
Club-sponsored event. “You’re a free
American, you should be able to travel
anywhere you want, whenever you want.”

This will not be Otter’s first visit there: he
has already been to Cuba three times as a
Republican U.S. House member on lobbyist-funded trips. In 2004, on a mission to Cuba
with Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, of
Idaho, Craig and Otter signed a potential
$10 million (euro7.5 million) nonbinding
deal with Cuba for Idaho agricultural
products. Still, the Idaho Department of
Commerce and Labor has on record just
$22,616 (euro16,912) in sales to Cuba in the
last decade — a shipment of frozen
potatoes.

Otter maintains Cuba is trying to expand
its oil and natural gas, and is
experimenting with turning some of its
sugar into ethanol. When the natural
resources take off, Otter says, so will
demand.