Louisiana Congressman Traveling To Cuba In April

It seems to be the trendy thing to do in politics these days. That trendy thing would be visiting the island nation of Cuba. Cuba was basically shut off from the United States in the late 1950's after a coup on the island put communist sympathizers in control.

Through the years of the cold war with the Soviet Union Cuba was thought of as a satellite for Moscow. There has been a lot of distrust between Cuba and America up until recently. This past week saw President Obama and his family visit Cuba. Yesterday the Rolling Stones arrived in Cuba to perform a concert.  This is part of the plan to normalize relations with that nation.

Now comes word that Louisiana Congressman Ralph Abraham will be traveling to Cuba in April. Congressman Abraham's prime reason for visiting in Cuba will be to establish agricultural trade contacts between Louisiana and that nation.

When you consider that the port of New Orleans is 36 hours away from Cuba and that currently the island nation gets most of its imports from Asia and Europe. It makes sense that a closer supply port would be beneficial to both trading partners.

I think the way you help the Cuban people address those issues is we send American tourists, we send American products over to their country and we power the Cuban civilians to make those changes.

That's what Congressman Abraham told the Louisiana Radio Network about his mission to Cuba. The trade embargo between the U.S. and Cuba is still in place but is expected to be lifted in 2017. That could open a lot of doors for Louisiana businesses, especially our agricultural interest.