1.  THE EMBARGO IS DAMAGING THE U.S. ECONOMY.

Under the most conservative estimate to date, presented in a 2000 report of the International Trade Commission, the embargo is depriving the American economy of up to $1 billion a year. A study done at Florida International University states the embargo is taking up to $1 billion annually from the Florida economy alone.

The American travel sector would gain immediately from an end to the travel ban, with over $500 million dollars in the first year, and nearly $1.7billion and the creation of over 10,000 jobs for working Americans in the fifth year after ending the ban -- the majority of these gains would be to beleaguered U.S. air carriers -- according to a June 2002 study commissioned by CPF from the University of Colorado.  Click here for summary,  or here for full-text of report.

America’s economy is losing up to $1.24 billion a year in agricultural exports because of the embargo, and up to $3.6 billion more a year in associated economic output, according to an independent report done for the Cuba Policy Foundation by agriculture economics professors C. Parr Rosson and Flynn Adcock of Texas A&M University. Click here to see the press release on their new agriculture-sector impact report. 

And according to an independent report for the Cuba Policy Foundation by Rice University energy expert Amy Myers Jaffe with Rice economics professor Ron Soligo, the embargo is costing America’s energy sector $2 billion to $3 billion annually. Click here to see their new energy-sector impact report.

2.  CURRENT U.S. POLICY HAS FAILED.

Forty years after the U.S. instituted the embargo to bring democratic reform to Cuba, the same regime rules Cuba and continues to deprive the Cuban people of their human and civil rights. Even the fall of the Soviet bloc more than ten years ago did not accelerate a change in Cuba’s government.

3.  ENGAGEMENT WILL PREPARE CUBA FOR DEMOCRACY AFTER CASTRO.

By establishing better relations with Cuba now, America can guide Cuba toward a steady and permanent landing to democracy. But the longer America waits, the greater the risk that Cuba’s post-Castro era will led by an equally oppressive regime, whether from the far-left or far-right.

4.  THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT A NEW POLICY TOWARD CUBA.

Every recent poll of Americans, including surveys from independent pollsters, shows a majority of Americans favors lifting the U.S. embargo -- with even bigger majorities favoring an end to other embargo-era policies. Americans want to lift the embargo by a margin of 52-to-32 percent, according to a Cuba Policy Foundation poll conducted in 2001 by a nonpartisan independent polling firm. By a 63-to-33 percent margin, Americans believe lifting the embargo would be the most effective way to bring democracy to Cuba. And by a 63-to-24 percent margin, Americans want the U.S. to start a formal dialogue with Cuba now.

Support for important incremental changes in U.S. policy is even stronger. Overwhelming majorities want to lift the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba (67-to-24 percent); to allow American companies to sell food to Cuba (71-to-22 percent); and to allow American companies to sell medicine to Cuba (76-to-17 percent).

5.  CUBAN-AMERICANS IN SOUTH FLORIDA WANT A CHANGE IN U.S. POLICY.

Pro-embargo lobbyists created and perpetuate the myth that Cuban-Americans in South Florida are opposed to any U.S. policy change. According to a 2000 Florida International University poll, a majority of Cuban-Americans living in Miami-Dade County – by a 52-48 percent margin – believe the U.S. should allow American companies to conduct at least some business with Cuba. By a 53-47 percent margin, a majority of Miami-Dade Cuban-Americans want the U.S. to lift the ban on travel to Cuba completely.

Even clearer majorities of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade want American companies to be allowed to sell food to Cuba (56-to-44 percent) and medicine to Cuba (66-to-34 percent).

In perhaps the most telling statistic, by an overwhelming 84-to-26 percent margin, Cuba-Americans in Miami-Dade believe the U.S. embargo against Cuba has failed.

6.  THE U.S. NEEDS A NEW CUBA POLICY AFTER SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001.

With the advent of America’s war on terrorism, proudly supported by the Cuba Policy Foundation, U.S. security interests are paramount in American foreign policy. That includes Latin America. Can the U.S. afford not to cooperate with a country 90 miles from our shores? America must work with Cuba on issues of counternarcotics, migration, civil unrest and counterterrorism in order to prevent these problems from first infesting the heart of South Florida, and then the rest of our nation.