Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 6/1917


President Donald Trump, in a speech Friday in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, announced a policy toward Cuba that would place new restrictions on travel and business, shifting away from the Obama administration's push toward greater engagement, according to news reports.

Trump will not sever diplomatic ties with Havana or shutter the U.S. embassy that reopened there in 2015. But he will impose new limits on commercial transactions that involve the Cuban military, an engine of the Cuban economy, CNN reported.
Farm groups were critical of Trump's plan. 

“We urge the administration to exercise caution in rolling out any new restrictions on doing business with Cuba that would limit our agricultural export opportunities," American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. "Our farmers and ranchers and the Cuban people would benefit from increased sales of high-quality, American-grown food and feed."

Cuba has been open to U.S. exports since 2015, but limited to cash sales. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) last year set updated export requirements for exports to Cuba including fresh and frozen pork, poultry, beef, sheep and goat meat. 

Talking trade in Savannah, Ga.
Separately, USDA announced that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will host Canadian Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Mexican Secretary of Agriculture José Calzada Rovirosa in Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday for a trilateral meeting and other joint events.

Reuters reported the agriculture officials are set to begin talks on renogotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In the first four months of 2017, Mexican imports of U.S. chicken meat fell 11 percent, the biggest decline for the period since 2003, Dow Jones reported.

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