LatinNews Daily - 19 May 2011

CUBA: Leaders of the US Senate have reaffirmed their support for a bill to ease trade regulations governing the export of medicines and agricultural products to Cuba. During a hearing by the Senate Finance Committee on 11 December, senators came out in favour of removing the US requirement that Cuba pay cash in advance for food and medicine. Committee chairman Max Baucus said that the regulation put in place by the Bush administration in 2005 was out-dated: "It no longer makes sense for either Cubans or Americans, it undermines America's economic competitiveness and it does not help promote our overall foreign policy goals."