Helpful pressure on Cuba

Frustrated as they watch foreign companies making deals with Cuba, U.S. business executives have increased pressure on the Clinton administration to end the American economic embargo. That is a healthy sign. Corporate pressure was a key element in the recent change in policy toward Vietnam.

Cuba does not loom large as a market for the United States. But for some businesses it could represent significant opportunities, and it is galling for these companies' executives to watch helplessly while corporations from Japan, Canada, Europe and other Latin American nations take advantage of Cuba's new openness.

U.S. telecommunications companies have had to stand by while Grupo Domos, a Mexican corporation, recently signed a huge deal to overhaul Cuba's telephone system. Louisiana rice growers would love to recapture what was once their biggest export market. Otis Elevator fears that Japanese manufacturers will move in to replace Otis equipment installed throughout Havana before Fidel Castro took power.

Executives confronting Assistant Secretary of State Alexander Watson at a recent State Department briefing, however, received the worn, formulaic response: "This administration will maintain the embargo until major democratic change takes place in Cuba."

The business people at the meeting were not mollified. They pointed out to Watson the inconsistency in Washington's stance towards other communist countries, notably China and Vietnam, where trade has gone forward despite the presence of authoritarian governments. As Watson noted at the meeting, however, Cuba is a special case.

The primary reason is the influence of the Cuban exile community. The Cuban American National Foundation, which has worked tirelessly for the overthrow of Castro, contributes heavily to congressional campaigns and sways a large bloc of voters in Florida. Few politicians, including presidents, have chosen to tangle with so powerful a lobby.

But the unity of the exile community is beginning to crack. Its leaders' messianic insistence on deposing Castro has begun to alienate a younger generation and more recent arrivals from Cuba.

In June, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a man with impeccable anti- Castro credentials -- he spent 22 years in a Cuban jail -- visited Havana and spent three hours talking with Castro. Gutierrez represents a new, moderate faction in the Cuban diaspora, a faction recognizing that many Cubans still support Castro.

Cuba has kept its commitments to the United States on immigration. With the end of the Cold War, it poses no security threat to the United States. Yet the sanctions on Havana are tighter than those imposed on Iraq. Legislation now before Congress -- which President Clinton has sensibly threatened to veto -- would tighten sanctions even further.

The legislation has clearly alarmed many business people. Some of its provisions would threaten their subsidiaries in other countries that already do business with Cuba.

If the executives are serious about changing Cuba policy, they need to help the administration find the courage to take on the conservative exile lobby, and make their wishes known to Congress. They are on the right track.

-- The New York Times