Iowa lawmaker plans trade mission to Cuba

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Democratic state lawmaker is organizing a trade mission to Cuba this summer in hopes of tapping into that market if the embargo against the Communist island is ever lifted, as President Barack Obama urged Wednesday.

State Sen. Steve Sodders, of State Center, hopes the trip he's arranging for August will pave the way for Iowa to export eggs, grains and meat if given the chance.

'We have someone coming from the Iowa Corn Growers Association and pork producers from Traer and Marshall County,” Sodders said Wednesday. 'We have Mobile Track Solutions in Elkader, which works a lot with Caterpillar, but they are starting to design tractors.

'That's one of the items that Cuba desperately needs for agriculture. Mobile Track wants to discuss making tractors to the specific size that the Cubans need.”

Sodders said Deere & Co. was invited earlier this year, but declined because Cuba was still on the list of nations that the United States said support terrorism. That designation was recently lifted by the U.S. State Department.

Obama called Wednesday on Congress to lift the embargo, but that faces stiff opposition including from some GOP presidential candidates.

Sodders said Hawkeye Hotels in Cedar Rapids will be exploring construction of tourist hotels when travel restrictions are relaxed. He said the Meskwaki Tribe may be interested in importing cigars, coffee and rum.

Sodders said the trade mission also will include legislators and representatives of banks, credit unions and telecommunications providers.

'We're hoping that some of the groups come out of there with memorandums of agreement so that when the embargo is lifted, the Cuban government will look at Iowa first,” Sodders said.

'We may be the first state delegation to visit the American embassy in Cuba.”