WASHINGTON (EFE).—The U.S. Treasury Department should not impose new restrictions on agricultural trade with Cuba or resort to potential delaying tactics in confirming senior positions in that ministry, according to an influential Democratic leader today.

Senator Max Baucus, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has issued that warning at a time when the Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is studying new restrictions on sales of agricultural goods to the island.

For Baucus, whose state of Montana has strong agricultural interests, those possible changes could significantly affect the sale of agricultural produce to Cuba.

A federal law of 2000 allows the sale of those goods if they are paid for in cash and in advance, and the Havana government has no right to credit facilities and cannot use its shipping to transport the cargo.

Apart from the purchase of U.S. goods, the act has no reciprocal benefit for Cuba, because the island cannot export to the United States.

In addition, U.S. companies need a special license for these sales.

Thanks to that legislation, U.S. companies have sold some $800 million worth of agricultural goods to the island, always on the condition of receiving the payment in advance.

An anonymous source from Baucus’ office informed EFE that the Democratic senator has received many calls from U.S. agricultural enterprises complaining that the OFAC appears to have instructed U.S. banks to freeze Cuban payments to them.

The attempt to obstruct legal trade after three years of it having functioned without incident has taken this government’s dangerous fixation on Cuba to a totally new level, Baucus stated in a communiqué.

He affirmed that he will not sit back with his arms folded if the Treasury Department tries to modify the legislation that Congress approved to facilitate trade with Cuba, adding that he will block appointments in the Treasury Department "until this has been resolved."