Cuban Embargo Analysis

United States’ Embargo Against Cuba Should Be Lifted On October 19, 1960, United States’ President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ties with the country of Cuba, creating a trade embargo between the two nations. One year later, current president Barack Obama was born. Today, 55 years later, President Obama is fighting for the end of a policy that has existed longer than he has. The long-standing embargo with Cuba has lasted too long; no one is gaining anything from it, if they ever actually had. Although it is argued that Cuba is still a threat to the United States, Congress should follow President Obama’s plan to lift the Cuban trade embargo to benefit both countries involved.

Authors for the Council on Foreign Relations Brianna Lee and Danielle

Austin Tymins, author for the Harvard Political Review, points out that the United States is Cuba’s largest food supplier. The United States also allows Americans to send $3,000 annual remittance payments to family members in Cuba (“Reexamining the Cuban Embargo”). Both of these connections would have to end to have the embargo be complete. David R. Mitchell, Associate Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, also comments in his chapter in the book The U.S. Policy on Cuba that, “A defining feature of socialism is the prohibition of voluntary exchange between people. Pro-embargo Americans typically want to get rid of socialism in Cuba. Yet their solution--prohibiting trade with Americans--is the very essence of socialism” (85). Mitchell brings up an ironic point, and if Americans really want to end socialism, then they should not, in a way, helped it continue to

Cuba has not drastically changed since 1960, when the embargo was first placed. The Cuban citizens are hurting, money is being lost, and no one is benefiting from the current status between the two nations. Raúl Castro has plans on leaving office in 2020, but while he is still in office, he is making changes to the country. Castro has eliminated ration books, lifted travel restrictions, and is liberalizing the economy (Tymins). These changes are putting Cuba in a path for success, and the United States can help this progress. As David R. Henderson states, “If your moral argument is that a policy must be kept in place to achieve a certain end, and the policy clearly does not achieve that end, aren’t you morally obligated to reconsider the policy?” (84). Congress, it has been 55 years. The policy should