They say the new approach surrenders a potentially lucrative market for American goods and services.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decision to reverse some Obama-era Cuba policies landed with a thud among many congressional Republicans, who say the new approach surrenders a potentially lucrative market for American goods and services to competitors.
While anti-Castro conservatives hailed Trump’s partial roll-back of President Obama’s detente, a number of other Republican lawmakers, particularly from farm states, criticized the change as misguided and isolationist. They urged him to ease barriers with Havana that will boost trade and create jobs in both countries.
Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said Trump’s shift is more than just a missed opportunity for rural America, which would benefit from greater access to Cuba’s agricultural import market. He said Trump’s policy may put U. S. national security at risk as strategic competitors move to fill the vacuum the uncoupling could create.
“Further U. S. disengagement opens up opportunities for countries like Iran, Russia, North Korea and China to gain influence on an island 90 miles off our coast, ” Crawford said.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a frequent critic of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, said that any policy change “that diminishes the ability of Americans to travel freely to Cuba is not in the best interests of the United States or the Cuban people.”
Flake has been among the most outspoken lawmakers opposed to rolling back Obama’s outreach to Havana. He’s warned that returning to a “get tough” policy hurts everyday Cubans whose livelihoods are increasingly rooted in travel and tourism.
Flake called for the Senate’s Republican leadership to allow a vote on his legislation that he said would eliminate “archaic restrictions” on travel to Cuba that “do not exist for travel by Americans to any other country in the world.”
Flake’s bill has 54 co-sponsors, including nine Republicans. Among them are Sens. John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Jerry Moran of Kansas.
During a speech Friday in Miami, Trump portrayed his updated policy as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to reverse Obama’s diplomatic rapprochement with Cuba after decades of estrangement.
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