The Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect (ACERE) strongly supports the introduction of H.R. 7521 by Representative Jim McGovern, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. H.R. 7521, the United States-Cuba Trade Act would end the United States’ decades-long embargo on Cuba by repealing or amending several laws codified over decades that restrict trade, exchange, telecommunications, and travel with Cuba. The bill has received some endorsements already. A similar bill, S. 136, has been introduced in the United States Senate by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). This represents the most comprehensive effort in a generation to normalize trade relations with Cuba.
For nearly seventy years, the embargo – considered unilateral coercive measures under international law – has failed to advance the United States’ stated objectives, which is the advancement of democracy or human rights. Instead, the failed policy has consistently inflicted unnecessary hardship on Cuban families, led to widespread humanitarian and economic crisis resulting in mass migrations, has separated loved ones across borders, and caused strain with our allies given its extraterritorial reach. This policy has also restricted opportunities for U.S. farmers, businesses, faith groups, humanitarian organizations, and Cuban American families to engage meaningfully with the Cuban people.
H.R. 7521 represents a long-overdue shift toward a more effective, humane, and principled U.S.–Cuba policy—one grounded in engagement, mutual respect, and dialogue rather than isolation. While the United States has intended the embargo to isolate Cuba from the international community, the opposite has proven true: nearly every member state of the United Nations General Assembly has consistently voted for the U.S. to end the embargo as an unethical, immoral and illegal imposition of unilateral coercive measures against Cuba. Ending the embargo would expand people-to-people connections, promote economic opportunity, and create space for cooperation on shared challenges, from public health and climate resilience to countering human and drug trafficking.
The Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect urges Congress to advance this legislation and to embrace policies that uphold human dignity, family unity, free trade and travel, and constructive engagement. It is time to move beyond an outdated approach and toward a future that benefits both the Cuban and American people.
