PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Brian O’Neill:
Local boxers may unlatch the door to Cuba
Boxers Wade Lipscomb and Nehemiah Hollinger listen during a news conference for the upcoming “Pittsburgh vs Cuba” held at Duquesne University.
February 2, 2017 12:00 AM
By Brian O’Neill / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Following an opening provided by young boxers’ jabs, a delegation of state officials is flying to Cuba this month to see how we might trade Pennsylvania grain for Cuban rum.
That’s a gross simplification but it’s the gist of a plan. Pittsburghers are flying to Havana on Feb. 20 for a rematch of the boxing matches that Cuban and Pennsylvanian amateurs had on the Roberto Clemente Bridge last July, which the visitors took 7-4 in a tournament delayed by lightning but watched by millions in Cuba.
Miguel Fraga, first secretary of the Cuban embassy in Washington, came to Duquesne University on Wednesday morning to meet local boxers and talk with state legislators about their upcoming trip.
Cuba has to import 70 to 80 percent of its food, Mr. Fraga said, getting rice from Vietnam and potatoes from Canada. But the half-century-old U.S. embargo prevents American farmers from selling to potential customers just across the Gulf of Mexico.
Former President Barack Obama, who eased relations with Cuba, called on Congress to lift the embargo. That hasn’t happened but Cuba hopes President Donald Trump continues down this path.
Mr. Fraga passed around copies of a Florida International University poll showing that most Americans, and even most Cuban-Americans in Miami, support lifting the embargo and easing travel restrictions.
Mr. Trump, a businessman, surely recognizes this nearby market’s potential. And Pennsylvanian ears perked up when Mr. Graza mentioned that Cuba has welcomed the governors of seven states in the past two years, and has made trade agreements with Alabama. States don’t get much more conservative than Alabama.
“There are hungry people there and we have food,” state Rep. Adam Harris, R-Juniata County and chair of the House Committee on Liquor Control, said after the meeting. “It’s not complicated.”
State Rep. Paul Costa, D-Wilkins and minority chair of the committee, said there might be creative ways around the embargo even before it’s lifted. Pennsylvania farmers might sell corn and wheat to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and the LCB could trade that to Cuba for rum.
No money need change hands, Mr. Costa said, but the LCB could sell the rum at a profit.
“This is a perfect opportunity to expand our trade and move our products,” he said.
Mike Diven, point man for these boxing bouts, has been touting the potential for Pennsylvania agriculture and pharmaceuticals since he was a Pennsylvania lawmaker when this century dawned. A farmer earning another $15,000 by finding a new market, Mr. Diven said, could make “the difference between being in the red and taking their kids and grandkids to Disney World.”
There were no naysayers at the conference table. The young fighters had trained in Cuba last summer with boxers who flew from the island to win six medals at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Our boxers gave the Cuban people rave reviews for their friendliness.
Wade Lipscomb, 24, an operations engineer at Range Resources who captains the Pittsburgh boxers (because “I get hit in the face for fun”) said he left behind his Nikes as a gift for a Cuban athlete who’d been nothing but a gracious host.
On such small gestures walls can crumble. The U.S. remains alone in its embargo. In a United Nations vote last October, 191 nations condemned it. Nobody voted against that measure, though the U.S. and Israel abstained.
Lisa Valanti of Carrick, a tireless advocate of Cuba for decades, said, “If we’re the showcase democracy of the Western world, we ought to be able to travel without asking the government’s permission.”
The Canadian press is already predicting Americans will end the golden age of bargain trips to the tropics if we’re all allowed in. About a million Canadians visit Cuba every year, and there are likely millions more south of Toronto eager to see this island that’s only 90 miles as the pelican flies from Key West, Fla.
State Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg, who noted that President Richard Nixon opened relations with communist China more than 40 years ago, said our embargo represents “the politics of the past.”
That may be but the past has a way of hanging around. If the LCB becomes the vehicle for major international reform, that would make it the early favorite in the 2017 Irony Awards
