October 1, 1999
Web posted at: 5:41 a.m. EDT (0941 GMT)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- American farmers hoping to boost their incomes with food sales to Cuba, and Cubans anxious to ease a trade embargo that has lasted nearly four decades, will have to wait at least another year.

Republican leaders in Congress on Thursday ordered a proposal to allow U.S. food and medicine sales to Cuba dropped from a $69 billion bill to fund the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year that begins Friday.

They gave the order to avoid possible defeat of the funding bill, after a week-long stalemate with lawmakers in Florida and other states who derided the food and medicine proposal as a plum for Cuba's Communist leader, President Fidel Castro. The anti-Castro lawmakers oppose any relaxation of a U.S. trade embargo imposed against Cuba in the early 1960s.

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US/Cuba relations

"I'm for sales to Cuba too but it should be to Cuba, not the dictatorship," said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, in an interview.

U.S. farm groups had lobbied hard for an end to the embargo, saying Cuba could become a $1 billion a year market for food exports. Many U.S. business groups also want access to Cuba.

In Havana, Castro said that Cuba could wait as long as the U.S. wants for the embargo to end. He also thanked those U.S. lawmakers who supported the food and medicine proposal.

"We simply want to express our gratitude to the numerous congressmen who fought honestly and bravely in favor of the sale of food and medicine," he said. "Although that would not have solved the problem, we see it as an important step."

The White House opposed the food and medicine proposal, saying it would hamper the president's ability to conduct foreign policy. The proposal would have required approval from Congress for any embargo on food and medicine sales except during wartime or for foreign policy and national security grounds.

Despite the Clinton administration's opposition to easing the embargo, its new point man for Cuba on Thursday said the U.S. wants to promote more "people to people" contact between the U.S. and Cuba.

"Supporting the Cuban people is central to our policy," said Charles Shapiro, the new director of the U.S. Office of Cuban Affairs. "It is central to a peaceful transition and to preparing Cuba for democracy."

House and Senate negotiators have cleared the agriculture funding bill for floor votes, and it is expected to be called for debate in the House on Friday under rules that will not allow it to be amended. The Senate voted 70-28 last month in favor of allowing food and medicine sales to Cuba.

This marks the second time in a year that a proposal to exempt food and medicine sales from U.S. embargoes has been killed during House-Senate negotiations over the final version of an agriculture spending bill. Trade with Cuba was the sticking point last year as well.

CNN correspondent Lucia Newman and Reuters contributed to this report.

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