THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
(Chicago, Illinois)

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE DAN GLICKMAN IN RADIO CONFERENCE CALL WITH AGRICULTURAL BROADCASTERS

1:07 P.M. CST

[EXCERPT]

Q Mr. President, this is Mike Adams in Jacksonville, Illinois. I'm President of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, and we appreciate this opportunity.

A new market many U.S. farmers would like to see opened is Cuba. Several U.S. farm groups have sent delegations to Cuba, and just recently our Illinois governor, George Ryan, led a humanitarian mission to Cuba. And with several farm groups calling for an end to the embargo, especially at a time when our ag economy is so depressed, and our farmers need all the markets they can get for their products, Mr. President, are you in favor of lifting the embargo? And if not, why?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm not in favor of a total lift of the embargo, because I think we should continue to try to put pressure on the Castro regime to move more toward democracy and respect for human rights. And it's the only non-democracy in our whole hemisphere.

And let me say, I have bent over backwards to try to reach out to them, and to try to provide more opportunities for person-to-person contacts, to get better transfer of medicine into Cuba, and all kinds of other things. And every time we do something, Castro shoots planes down and kills people illegally, or puts people in jail because they say something he doesn't like. And I almost think he doesn't want us to lift the embargo, because it provides him an excuse for the failures, the economic failures of his administration.

Now, on the other hand, there is consideration being given in the Congress to broad legislation which would permit us to, in effect, not apply sanctions or embargoes to food or medicine. And under the right circumstances, I could support that. Now -- and it had broad bipartisan support. My understanding is that it has been held up in the Congress because Senator Helms and others don't want us to sell any food to Cuba. But under the right circumstances, a general policy which permitted me to -- which basically said it is the general policy of the United States not to include food and medicine in embargoes, but under emergencies they could be -- I could support that kind of legislation. And I think that would provide a lot of relief to the farmers.

But it would have to be written in the proper way. And I have worked with both Republicans and Democrats on that. But it's my understanding that Cuba is the very issue that's preventing it from being passed in the Congress today.

Q Thank you, sir.