The hubbub over six-year-old Elian Gonzales may propel efforts to re-establish trade ties with Cuba. Senator Tom Harkin says the Elian Gonzales saga has helped efforts to open trade relations with Cuba. The U-S House yesterday approved selling food and medicine to Cuba, but the proposal bars public or private financing of those sales. Harkin says that makes it a “sham.” He says they want to have it both ways.But Republican Congressman Tom Latham disagrees. He says it’s the “cracking open of a door that will never again be closed.”Latham says Cuba’s a big market for American farm goods.Last year, the U-S Senate endorsed opening the trade window with Cuba. Harkin says it’s time to sell U-S commodities and medicine to Cuba — and let people travel freely between the two countries. He says that once you start opening up the country to trade and private sector business, then it’s only a matter of time that Dictator Fidel Castro is gone.Harkin, who’s a democrat, says U-S policy towards Cuba makes no sense.
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