Crawford still keen on Cuba farm trade

Efforts to expand agricultural trade with Cuba have been hampered by the recent sonic attacks on Americans in Havana, U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford said.

The Jonesboro Republican represents the nation’s top rice-producing congressional district and he’s sponsoring legislation to remove existing trade barriers.

President Donald Trump has blamed the Cuban government for the mysterious audio barrage, which has injured at least 22 American diplomats and their family members.

The State Department said it isn’t sure who’s responsible for the attacks, which have caused hearing loss, cognitive impairment and other problems in some victims.

In late September, the Trump administration announced that it would be withdrawing more than half of its embassy staff in Havana. U.S. citizens are being warned not to travel to Cuba until the culprits have been identified.

In an interview Tuesday, Crawford said he remains committed to passing HR525, the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act. Sponsored by Crawford and co-sponsored by 61 of his House colleagues, it would allow farmers to extend credit to Cuban purchasers and enable Americans to invest in nongovernmental Cuban agricultural projects.

“The diplomatic incident that has taken place over the last few months [has] kind of grabbed all the headlines and sort of changed the conversation a little bit but we’ll get to the bottom of that,” Crawford said.

Once the mystery has been solved, “we’ll move forward on it,” he added.