Clinton expected to ease curbs

 BY ANA RADELAT
 Special to The Herald

 Part 3 of a 3 part series

 WASHINGTON -- Sensing that Congress and the president are willing to poke holes in the
 40-year-old embargo against Cuba, hundreds of U.S. lawmakers, farm leaders and corporate
 executives have rushed to Havana in recent months to explore business opportunities.

 Even if Congress fails to ease sanctions against Cuba, President Clinton will probably
 take additional steps before leaving office in January, according to administration officials
 and business consultants with interests in Cuba.

 Although the fall of the Berlin Wall heightened interest in trade with the island, Pope John
 Paul II's journey to Cuba in 1998 gave travel there ``legitimacy and acceptability,'' said Geoff
 Thale, an associate with the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit group that
 advocates easing the embargo. ``Before the pope's visit, it was a bigger political risk,'' Thale
 said.

 Afterward, President Clinton eased restrictions on the sale of medicines, allowed U.S. food
 sales to nongovernmental entities on the island and relaxed restrictions on American travel.

 And even though the 1996 Helms-Burton Act stripped the president of much of his authority
 over the Cuba embargo, Clinton can still license specific transactions.

 LICENSING AUTHORITY

 Using that licensing authority, Clinton may broaden permitted transactions to
 include the sale of food to the Cuban government under certain conditions, some
 business consultants say.

 These conditions might include prohibiting sales that benefit Cuba's tourism
 industry or allowing limited sales for a trial period.

 Moreover, Clinton will probably allow Cuban Americans unlimited travel to the
 island to visit their relatives, a State Department official said. They are now
 restricted to once-a-year visits unless they can obtain permission for additional
 travel for humanitarian purposes.

 José Cárdenas, director of the Cuban American National Foundation's
 Washington office, called the pope's visit a ``catalyst'' that led to increased U.S.
 contacts with Cuba.

 ``In the beginning of the administration [Clinton] held to the traditional U.S.
 approach of isolating the Castro regime. Now they're virtual cheerleaders [for
 increased U.S. contacts with the island],'' Cárdenas said.

 VISITS ENCOURAGED

 A State Department official agreed that the Clinton administration ``encouraged
 various official delegations going down.''

 ``It's a central part of our people-to-people policy,'' the official explained.

 Meanwhile, dozens of lawmakers who want U.S.-Cuba policy to change are flying
 to Havana. The Washington Office on Latin America hosted an April trip to Cuba
 for Reps. Joe Moakley and Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrats who have
 long criticized the Cuba embargo. In February, the group took Reps. Michael
 McNulty and Maurice Hinchey, New York Democrats.

 Pastors for Peace, an interdenominational group of religious leaders who maintain
 that embargo restrictions are unconstitutional, has organized travel for the
 all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus, whose members have made five
 trips to Cuba in the last 18 months. Their travel was largely funded by private
 foundations.

 ``Feeling that lifting the trade sanctions on Cuba for food and medicine is on the
 horizon, I wanted to make the trip there to lay the groundwork for South Carolina
 to take advantage of this new market,'' said Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C.,
 chairman of the black caucus. ``And believe me, I am not alone.''

 DELEGATES TRAVEL

 When Clyburn was in Havana this month, he ran into Sen. Blanche Lincoln and
 Rep. Marion Berry, Arkansas Democrats, who were traveling with a 16-member
 delegation of Arkansas farmers.

 While Cuba has always attracted liberal Democrats, it now has bipartisan appeal.

 Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., visited last year, as did Illinois Gov. George Ryan,
 also a Republican. Both men discussed business opportunities with Cuban
 officials during their stay.

 ``It serves neither the U.S.'s nor Cuba's interest to continue the embargo on vital
 supplies like food and medicine,'' Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.,
 said during his trip last August.

 In the last two years, representatives of U.S. Wheat Associates have visited
 Havana five times. They brought wheat donations on their first two visits, but now
 they are trying to sell.

 NEW MARKET

 Dawn Forsythe, spokeswoman for the group, acknowledges that the Cuban
 Catholic charity CARITAS and other nongovernmental groups in Cuba -- which are
 allowed by law to buy U.S. agricultural goods -- ``are not set up to handle'' the
 volume of wheat U.S. producers want to sell to Cuba.

 Yet the opportunity to reach a new market compels the American wheat growers
 to keep trying, Forsythe said.

 The American Farm Bureau Federation, the Texas Farm Bureau and the U.S.
 Feed Grains Council have also sent delegations to Cuba since the pope's visit.

 Representatives of the U.S. Cane Sugar Refiners' Association also visited.

 Nicholas Kominus, president of the association, said his members are preparing
 for the day they can import and refine Cuba's ``high quality'' sugar.

 ``If you're in the industry, going to Cuba is like going to Mecca,'' he said.

 LAYING GROUNDWORK

 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also sponsored two trips to the island in the
 past year, laying the groundwork for the day that its members are allowed to trade
 with the island.

 Chamber Vice President Craig Johnstone predicts the embargo will be lifted
 because it is ``unhelpful for Cuba and unhelpful for the United States.''

 Meanwhile, the chamber, the largest U.S. business group, has initiated several
 projects with Cuban officials. One would bring Cuban entrepreneurs to the United
 States. Another would begin talks between the Cuban government and some of
 the American companies that lost property during Castro's nationalizations.

 The Clinton administration is wary of independent efforts to settle such claims,
 but it was more supportive of the first U.S. trade show in Havana. Peter Nathan,
 president of PWN Exhibicon, organized a January health trade fair, which was
 attended by 309 business people from 97 American companies.

 Since licensed sales of medicine and medical products are permitted under law,
 trade show participants signed contracts worth between $3 million and $5 million
 at the event. Since then, trade fair participants have received another $15 million
 to $20 million in orders from the Cuban government, Nathan said.

 Nathan, who produced the first U.S. trade shows in Communist China and the
 former Soviet Union, said embargo restrictions made the Cuba exhibit the most
 difficult of all his ventures.

 Yet he is planning a food and agribusiness show for American producers in
 Havana next year.

 ``There's just so much interest,'' Nathan said.