In view of Fidel Castro’s recent decision to step down as president of Cuba, it’s time for the United States to reevaluate its travel and trade restrictions with that country. The infamous embargo imposed after the 1959 Castro-led revolution on the island-nation only 90 miles from Florida has had limited affect on reforming any policies there.

Because the U.S. is the only nation in the world to impose an embargo, Cuba is able to buy all the products it needs from other suppliers, but at an additional cost due to distance and time required for shipment.

Castro has repeatedly blamed his country’s poverty on the U.S. embargo, thereby deflecting the failed policies of his communist regime, the real cause of the country’s economic woes.

By disallowing trade, travel and social interaction with the Cuban people, the U.S. embargo has actually perpetuated Castro’s leadership control for the past 49 years. He has successfully used the U.S. as a scapegoat for any problems that beset his country.

Arkansas Farm Bureau sponsored a U.S.-licensed trade mission to Cuba in May 2000, with the purpose of exploring trade opportunities. U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Rep. Marion Berry accompanied us on this groundbreaking trip.

Other trade delegations by U.S. agricultural interests soon followed — and they provided the impetus for the passage of the Trade Sanctions Reform & Export Enhancement Act of 2000, which allowed limited cash sales of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba.

As a result of that act, the first sale of products to Cuba in more than 40 years began in 2001. They peaked at $392 million in 2004, before the Bush administration required that the full amount of any agricultural purchases be received before any shipment could leave U.S. ports. As expected, this idiocy has decreased our sales to Cuba (down to $337 million in 2006), though because of the advantages of our proximity, the U.S. still accounts for 32 percent of all of Cuba’s agricultural imports.

If the trade restrictions are removed, it is probable that the U.S. will immediately capture most of Cuba’s $1 billion in annual agricultural imports. Arkansas, in fact, would benefit more than any other state, with more than $160 million in projected sales (primarily rice and poultry products), according to a study by Texas A&M University.

The U.S. has resumed trade and diplomatic relations with many of our former adversaries, including Libya, Iran, North Korea and Vietnam. How is it that we can seemingly forgive the atrocities perpetrated on innocent U.S. citizens and our Armed Services personnel by these rogue nations, yet we cannot see that our national security interests will be enhanced by open trade and travel with a country in which everyone else in the world has free and unfettered access?

The U.S. position reflects an ugly political reality: a small minority of Cuban-Americans wield an inordinate amount of political influence in Florida and other eastern-seaboard states.

In an effort to promote peace and cultural exchange, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra recently performed in Pyongyang, North Korea. Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry attended the concert and called it “a historic moment,” considering how close the countries came to war in 1994 due to North Korea’s nuclear program.

I support that effort to bridge cultural differences with outreach and, in fact, would call for another historic moment in U.S. foreign relations: send the New York Philharmonic to Havana. Raúl Castro, Fidel’s younger brother and the new Cuban president, has indicated a willingness to advance U.S.-Cuban relations. It is time, after 49 years, to give peace a chance. We should extend an olive branch to this new Cuban leader in hopes that through unrestricted trade, travel and interaction with American citizens that the Cuban people will demand a change in their failed system of government.

End the embargo now!!

That’s my view from the farm.