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If the American embargo of Cuba ended, what do you think would happen to the USA and Cuba? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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This isn't meant to be a discussion on the morality of the embargo, but the affects of the embargo ending for both countries. These affects can be political, economic, or social.

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[โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

We actually export a huge amount of rice. https://fas.usda.gov/data/commodities/rice (3 million tons exported, to Cuba's 200k total production). We're actually the fifth largest exporter.
We also produce more sugar cane, but Brazil is the real power player there.

Cuba wouldn't be alone in being injured by US agricultural exports. Our volume and low cost can, for example, make people prefer imported American grains over domestic production, even if they're different types.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    im not saying that we dont export more than cuba (i mean given population size, thats to be expected), its just that what yhey can supply for theirselves internally is enough to sustain their own use, at worst, their exports are worse, but they arent just competing against thr U. S in terms of exports so thats more or less moot point, given Brazil on its own is larger and a reasonable distance.

    the U.S would have to shift a significant portion of its rice specifically to Cuba if it wanted to disrupt prices there, and that considers that rice is the main carb they intake, which theres a bunch of other carbs they grow in country for their own consumption to move over to if necessary.

    their economy if not able to compete would switch from being less export of produce to a heavier focus on tourism similar to other carribean nations.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago

    Oh, it's definitely not a definite thing that it would disrupt their farming, but cheap US agricultural products being introduced into a market has had negative impacts on other locations before, so it's not just a hypothetical.

    It's not so much about deliberately trying to disrupt prices, more that the US doesn't send rice places, people bid on it. If a food distributor in Cuba finds that they can get rice cheaper from the US, they might opt to make that switch, or if they just bring in corn people might increase the corn in their diet since it's cheaper.

    Tourism might not be the best choice for them, at least if offshore ownership is allowed. It often ends up providing jobs, but little of the money actually stays in the locale beyond wages and some minor commodities.

    How Cuba having a more planned economy impacts all this is also an interesting thing to consider, since they could just dictate "no offshore resort owners, and minimum rice prices".

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