05 January 1999
(Dobbins, Romero, Ranneberger discuss U.S. policy) (3400) WASHINGTON -- The Clinton Administration is hoping that policies allowing expanded contact between non-governmental groups in Cuba and the United States will ease the island's transition to democracy, according to senior officials. The policies, announced January 5, will include the establishment of direct mail service between the two countries and sales of food and agricultural inputs to independent entities in Cuba. "The intention of this is to promote a very nascent, non-governmental sector in Cuba in a way that they're able to exercise increasing autonomy and, obviously, increase their ranks," Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Peter Romero told reporters. "Will these groups now be able to afford lots of U.S. products and agricultural implements and food? The answer to that is probably no. Will they, in the future? That's our sincerest hope," Romero added. He explained that the initiative builds on existing policies and reflects an ongoing review of U.S. dealings with Cuba, saying: "There needs to be a greater effort on our part to reach out to the Cuban people and to disarm the propaganda machine in Cuba that essentially continues with the same diatribe that the American people are the enemy of the Cuban people; quite the contrary." Romero was joined by James Dobbins, special assistant to the president and senior director for inter-American affairs at the National Security Council, and Michael Ranneberger, the State Department's director of Cuban affairs. Following is the State Department transcript of the briefing: (begin transcript) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman For Immediate Release January 5, 1999 ON-THE-RECORD BRIEFING ON CUBA: -- Ambassador James Dobbins, special assistant to the president and senior director for inter-American affairs, NSC; -- Ambassador Peter Romero, acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs; -- Michael Ranneberger, coordinator for Cuba affairs, Department of State Q: Most of the criticism thus far has been directed at the food sale component of the program. Senator Mack asked how can we sell agricultural products without selling to Fidel's machine of oppression. The foundation -- Cuban-American National Foundation -- is speaking in a similar vein, and the two Cuban-American Congressmen also have spoken out against this particular aspect of this. What is your response? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: I think it's a mistake to look at any one of these individually. I think that what you need to do is to look at them as an integrated whole. If you're talking about increasing people-to-people contacts, if you're talking about more flights, more people, counterparts in the United States -- that sort of thing -- with remittances, I think you begin to get a very clear sense that the intention of this is to promote a very nascent, non-governmental sector in Cuba in a way that they're able to exercise increasing autonomy and, obviously, increase their ranks. Will these groups now be able to afford lots of U.S. products and agricultural implements and food? The answer to that is probably no. Will they, in the future? That's our sincerest hope. AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: I might try to answer the question a little more precisely as the Senator put it. In each of these measures, there will be implementing regulations which will be published in the coming weeks. As last March, we will consult with the different interested constituencies and then try to write implementing regulations which are workable, which achieve the objectives. I think that they are all workable regulations, which can limit food sales to the intended audience, which are non-governmental entities. At the moment, there's a very limited potential for such entities. The hope is that by having this on offer that potential will grow over time. But for the moment, it will be largely the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches, who maintain humanitarian activities on the island, who would be eligible. Similarly, independent farmers, co-ops, would be eligible to buy seed or fertilizer or those kinds of things if the Cuban Government permitted them to do so; and it's quite possible that they won't and that this will be on the table as an incentive rather than immediately implemented as fully as it might be. We will write implementing licensing regulations which will, I think, meet these criticisms and which will permit this to be implemented if the Cuban Government is prepared to allow it to go forward and doesn't block it. Q: Don't these measures, if not in the letter, certainly in the spirit, cut across grain with Helms-Burton? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: No, we don't think so. I mean, Helms-Burton codified the embargo and at the same time, it codified the President's licensing power. That is, it codified a process by which there was an embargo to which exceptions could be granted on a case-by-case basis by the President in cases in which it was deemed to be consistent with U.S. policy. Of course, we issued hundreds, probably thousands of licenses for different things since Helms-Burton was signed without any complaint -- any complaint on the grounds that it was inconsistent with Helms-Burton. In some cases, people didn't agree with a particular licensing decision. But the concept that the President would be able to license travel, remittances, other things, such as the steps he took with March, is well accepted. This is well within that framework. Q: The Secretary didn't mention the arrangement with the Baltimore Orioles. Could you talk about that a little bit? Will she be throwing out the first pitch in the game down there? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: I think that we are in a stage where we've given a licensing permission to go down -- to the Baltimore Orioles general management -- to go down and explore with the Cuban Government the possibility of holding an exhibition game in Cuba and a follow-on game up here in Camden Yards. If those negotiations are successful, then we would move to consider a request for a further license to actually hold the games themselves. Certainly, the major condition in that would be the proceeds to the game. The general management of the Baltimore Orioles has agreed that any proceeds beyond the costs would definitely go to charity, to include Catholic Relief Services or what's called "Caritas" in Cuba. This group will have to go and talk to Cuban officials to determine their willingness to accept this kind of conditionality. Q: (Inaudible) - to go this week, you said? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: I don't know specifically about the timing, but I know it will be very soon because spring training is soon. Q: Why the Orioles; why not Cleveland? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: They applied. AMBASSADOR ROMERO: The Orioles -- I think this is their third time applying, the Baltimore Orioles. Q: Will the Orioles' contacts with the Cuban Government lead to any American Government contact with the Cubans? And beyond that, do you foresee other cooperative steps that might include narcotics cooperation or environmental cooperation? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: I don't foresee at this stage any necessity for direct government-to-government contacts regarding this particular license or these games if they were to take place. There's certainly been analogous, although less prominent, kinds of exchanges in the past. So at this point, there's nothing envisaged along those lines. As to cooperation in other areas, there are some rather limited areas which include both immigration and law enforcement where we do, on a case-by-case basis, cooperate with the government of Cuba and will continue to do so. But there's nothing new in these measures. Q: Some people I spoke to this morning seem to be under the impression that the Cuban Government Import Agency (inaudible) could buy food indirectly by giving money to non-governmental organizations. Is this something that your rules would allow, or is this out of the question? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: The rules would require that the -- I mean, the rules are to be developed. But the intent is to require that the food be purchased by and for the use of non-governmental entities. I think while what you're suggesting may be theoretically possible, it sounds to me to be rather implausible. I don't think Caritas or the Protestant churches would engage in that kind of activity. I think, certainly, an effort to ensure against diversions would be built into the process of both licensing and then reviewing those licenses. Q: How do you intend to enforce those rules and regulations? And why did the government decide to put forward this package of measures now? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: Let me do the first half and let Pete try on the second. I think the enforcement mechanisms are the standard ones that are built into the Executive Orders, Helms-Burton and other legislation which provide the President this licensing authority. There are criminal and civil penalties for gaining such licenses under false pretenses or acting in manners incompatible with the license. In addition to which, of course, individuals or firms that are hoping for some continuing relationship under a continuing license also face the prospect that the license wouldn't be renewed if it was found to be abused in some case. Q: But will you have people on the ground -- any sort of Customs officials or other government officials who will be monitoring this or regulating it? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: We have a mission in Cuba. Technically, it's the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy; but it is the largest diplomatic mission in Cuba. They would, of course, observe and report on cases in which abuses took place. But I think the bulk of the oversight would be through the U.S. link; that is, through the U.S. participants in these exchanges, or in the case of sales of food, to monitor, to provide end-use assurances, to provide access to records that would demonstrate that the food or the exchange or whatever it was was consistent with the intended purpose. Q: So why now? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: The timing, simply because when we announced our measures on March 20 of last year, we said that the policy would be under continual review. Much of what we've done now is simply the next step or amplification of those measures that were announced on March 20. The other part of it is very straightforward. That is, that there needs to be a greater effort on our part to reach out to the Cuban people and to disarm the propaganda machine in Cuba that essentially continues with the same diatribe that the American people are the enemy of the Cuban people; quite the contrary. AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: Let me just add to that, because I think this is significant. I think that there's a growing perception in this country, as well as in Cuba, that Cuba is approaching a transition. We don't know how quickly it will come; but that it will come is almost certain. As that transition approaches, people are more eager to find ways to assist it and to assure that it is peaceful and that it is democratic. I think the calls by a number of members of Congress for a commission on Cuba was reflective of this increased sense of urgency. I think that in a few days the Council on Foreign Relations is going to come out with its own report which will advocate a number of measures -- some of which are quite compatible with the kinds of things we've done. So I think there's a growing consensus that there is a transition coming and that we should be pro-active in finding ways of supporting that transition without strengthening the Cuban regime. Q: But that raises a question. There was a lot of criticism last year by moderate Republicans, among others, who had served in many administrations, that the whole idea of licensing food and medicines and the way it's been done works, really, against long-term U.S. interests. Yet you're still planning to license food in a very restrictive way. I haven't heard anything about easing the restrictions on medicine. More specifically, one of the problems is the 1992 Democracy Act, which, I guess, restricts transportation of these goods to Cuba to such an extent that the price is raised by three or four-fold. So I wonder if you can just sort of give the logic. It is hard to understand in the next to the last year of this century that we're still licensing food shipments and medicine shipments to Cuba and raising the transportation costs so high. MR. RANNEBERGER: Well, first of all, since we've already done the medicine expediting licensing, since the March measures were announced, we've licensed about $2 million in medical sales; whereas in the previous five years, we had licensed maybe $13 million. So you can see that the pace has increased. We've licensed 13 sales. So that is already happening, those streamlined procedures, and the fact that we have to license each of those is not holding that back. We cut the licensing time by about 40 percent. We're working to get that up to 50 percent for the medical licensing. The average period is now about 40 days. On the food, we feel that there's a need to license it individually because there is the danger of diversion of foodstuffs, use by the Cuban regime. That is something we don't want to see happen. We don't want the products to be used to support the state sector, which has clearly failed. What we want to try to do and what this will do is promote, hopefully, an opening of the agricultural sector in Cuba, give private farmers the opportunity to expand operations and the like. This is feasible. I mean, it will develop licensing criteria, and we'll try to do it expeditiously. I think what we've seen to on the monitoring with the medical sales, we've been able to monitor that quite effectively, unobtrusively but effectively, and I think we'll be able to do something similar on the food sales. Q: The transportation -- you didn't deal with transportation? MR. RANNEBERGER: Well, on the transportation issue, look, we've looked into this, and there are accusations that the embargo raises the transportation cost. There's no science on this, nobody has definitive figures. The figures that I've seen indicate that at most, maybe there's a 3 percent additional transportation cost. But those figures are disputed; others claim that they're higher. There are ways to get foodstuffs between the United States and Cuba. Obviously, if we want to license sales, we can license the means to get those there. There's regular barge traffic between the U.S. and Cuba. So I don't think transportation is going to be a big issue. AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: I'd just also note that since one of the elements that we're announcing is that we're going to permit charter flights from locations other than Miami and Havana, there will presumably be an increase in air traffic and licensed goods would be eligible for transit on those flights. Q: Did you discuss any of these issues with the Cuban Government before announcing them? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: I think the answer is no. I think they are being informed of them, but - AMBASSADOR ROMERO: They were informed today. Q: Picking up on being informed today, Peter, has there been any reaction whatever, from the Cubans informally, formally, or what other kinds of feedback have you gotten generally? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: Mike, you met with them, why don't you -- MR. RANNEBERGER: We met with them this morning to inform them that we were taking these steps and we've given them the details. They didn't have any formal reaction at this point. I think they're waiting to see, like so many people, what the details are and what the implementing procedures will be like. Q: (Inaudible) reaction? MR. RANNEBERGER: No, they simply took the information. Q: Mr. Romero, I imagine, if this is under continual review, can you talk a little more about the long-range policy? Do you see more relaxation on the embargo if, perhaps, Castro responded somewhat reasonably? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: First of all, let me say that the measures that we've decided to undertake have nothing to do with the embargo. The embargo is the law of the land. It is in place, and for the foreseeable future, unless Congress changes it, it will remain in place. That is indicative of a long-standing policy and one which reflects reality; and that is that the respect for human rights and individual liberties in Cuba has not improved. I don't see that changing. What we will do and what we will continue to have under review will be those kinds of measures which were announced today which will enable us to reach out to the Cuban people and to ease the democratic transition. That's what will be under review. Ambassador Dobbins mentioned the Council on Foreign Relations. They've had a working group established now for several months. They've been working on sets of recommendations. We've seen some informal drafts. Many of those recommendations look good, and we'll just basically continue to review them. Q: Review what? For instance, if Castro responds reasonably, what might happen? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: I'm not going to -- I can't get into what might be or what might not be. People have been waiting for over 40 years for Castro to respond positively. What I can say is that the people-to-people kinds of measures will be under constant and continual review, regardless of what Fidel Castro decides to do or doesn't do. AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: To reaffirm that, I think the President has said several times he's ready to improve relations with Cuba when Castro is prepared to make significant steps toward democracy and respect for human rights. But we're not waiting for that to occur to take steps that we can to support a democratic transition in ways that don't strengthen the Cuban regime. That's what we did in March; that's what we've done today. To the extent further proposals come that fit within that policy, they'll certainly be considered seriously. Q: How are you planning to do your diplomacy (inaudible) in Latin America and Europe to keep the pressure off of Fidel Castro when you cannot resolve the dispute with the European Union about the Helms-Burton? AMBASSADOR DOBBINS: Well, I mean, I think we're continuing to work both with our Congress to seek legislation consistent with the agreement we come to with the European Union regarding some aspects of Helms-Burton, specifically Title IV. The European Union has given us a pledge, and we believe is adhering to it, not to improve its relations with Cuba unless Cuba makes significant steps in the areas of democracy and human rights. That doesn't mean they're going to put an embargo in place, and we didn't expect it; but neither are they going to give them preferential trade arrangements or concessional credits, and they haven't done either of those things. So we're proceeding in our relations with Europe and with Latin America and with other countries along the lines we have for the last couple of years. Clearly, there are aspects on which we don't agree and aren't likely to agree. But we do believe that these countries also support a democratic transition; and we believe that within that limited framework, they are prepared to cooperate to promote it. Q: How do you respond to criticism from some Cuban-Americans, particularly one Republican Congresswoman, who feels that these policies mask the Administration's true intent, which is really to normalize relations with Castro and Cuba? AMBASSADOR ROMERO: Well, you can see sub rosa intent in almost anything that we do here in the State Department. We had thought this is a pretty straightforward kind of thing. We intend to continue to insist upon better observance of human rights standards and civil liberties. We don't have a hidden agenda here; what you see is what you get. It's unfortunate that Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen couldn't agree with us on the full range of things, but she has responded very positively to our decision on the commission. Thank you very much. (end transcript)