CUBA, THE UNITED STATES, AND
THE ROAD BACK TO MFN
 With
Senator Jeff Flake
Republican of Arizona,
Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Thursday, September 10, 2015
9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
(Registration from 8:30 a.m.)
The National Press Club
529 14th Street, NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC  20045

The eleven million people who live in Cuba and the roughly 319 million who live in the United States are separated by more than those famous 90 miles of ocean.  The Florida Straits are easily crossed.   History is the difficult barrier.  The initial diplomatic break of January 1961 might perhaps have been short-lived if it had not been so frighteningly set in stone by the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of nuclear war in October 1962.  The following decades added further complexities, both legal and political, like the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which challenged commerce between Cuba and U.S. allies.  Now change is in the air.  President Obama has outlined a path to a more normal relationship between the United States and Cuba, and on July 20, the U.S. Embassy in Havana reopened as did the Cuban Embassy in Washington. 

But what of trade and commerce?  Changes in those areas will have to come from Congress.  Will Congress too favor a more normal relationship with Cuba?  If they do, how will they get there?  What laws will need to be changed?  What demands will be made of Cuba?  And what would normal trade mean for U.S. farmers and manufacturers?  Those are some of the issues we will look at on September 10 with help from these experts: 

The Hon Jeff Flake 
Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
on
Congress, Cuba, and American Trade

Plus a Panel With

John Magnus
TradeWins LLC

David Salmonsen
American Farm Bureau Federation, and 

William Lane
Caterpillar

Price: $45 general admission.  There is no charge for GBD Members, U.S. Goverment staff, or press.   

To Register, simply click the link below and follow the prompts.  We look forward to seeing you on September 10.