Trade Embargo
Resolution to Lift Trade Embargo on Cuba
Aff
1. The United States should end the Cuba embargo because its 50-year policy has failed to achieve its goals. Feb. 7, 2012 marked the 50th anniversary of the embargo, and the goal of forcing Cuba to adopt a representative democracy still has not been achieved. Fidel Castro resigned his presidency in 2008, and abdicated his role as the leader of Cuba's communist party in 2011 due to illness. His brother Raúl then stepped in to take his place. If 50 years of sanctions have not toppled the Castro regime, there is no reason to think the embargo will ever work.
2. The embargo is a relic of Cold War Era thinking and is unnecessary because Cuba does not pose a threat to the United States. Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War raised concerns about US national security, but that era is long over. The USSR dissolved in 1991, and American foreign policy has adapted to the change in most aspects apart from the embargo. The US Defense Intelligence Agency released a report in 1998 stating "Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries in the region." The embargo can no longer be justified by the fear of Communism spreading throughout the Western Hemisphere.
3. The embargo harms the US economy. The US Chamber of Commerce opposes the embargo, saying that it costs the United States $1.2 billion annually in lost sales of exports. A study by the Cuba Policy Foundation, a nonprofit founded by former US diplomats, estimated that the annual cost to the US economy could be as high as $4.84 billion in agricultural exports and related economic output. "If the embargo were lifted, the average American farmer would feel a difference in his or her life within two to three years," the study's author said. A Mar. 2010 study by Texas A&M University calculated that removing the restrictions on agricultural exports and travel to Cuba could create as many as 6,000
Aff
1. The United States should end the Cuba embargo because its 50-year policy has failed to achieve its goals. Feb. 7, 2012 marked the 50th anniversary of the embargo, and the goal of forcing Cuba to adopt a representative democracy still has not been achieved. Fidel Castro resigned his presidency in 2008, and abdicated his role as the leader of Cuba's communist party in 2011 due to illness. His brother Raúl then stepped in to take his place. If 50 years of sanctions have not toppled the Castro regime, there is no reason to think the embargo will ever work.
2. The embargo is a relic of Cold War Era thinking and is unnecessary because Cuba does not pose a threat to the United States. Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War raised concerns about US national security, but that era is long over. The USSR dissolved in 1991, and American foreign policy has adapted to the change in most aspects apart from the embargo. The US Defense Intelligence Agency released a report in 1998 stating "Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries in the region." The embargo can no longer be justified by the fear of Communism spreading throughout the Western Hemisphere.
3. The embargo harms the US economy. The US Chamber of Commerce opposes the embargo, saying that it costs the United States $1.2 billion annually in lost sales of exports. A study by the Cuba Policy Foundation, a nonprofit founded by former US diplomats, estimated that the annual cost to the US economy could be as high as $4.84 billion in agricultural exports and related economic output. "If the embargo were lifted, the average American farmer would feel a difference in his or her life within two to three years," the study's author said. A Mar. 2010 study by Texas A&M University calculated that removing the restrictions on agricultural exports and travel to Cuba could create as many as 6,000