-DATE-
19590919
-YEAR-
1959
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO ANSWERS APRDO LLADA
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
REVOLUCION
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19590919
-TEXT-
CASTRO ANSWERS PARDO LLADA

Source:  Revolucion (Revolution), 18-19 September 1959, Havana,

Pardo Llada

I would like to insist on a question asked by Manach on the
understanding of the US government.  If there is no such understanding of
the arguments of the revolutionary government and the people of Cuba, and
in connection with these butter and rice interests, Cuba would be
threatened because of putting the United States sugar market in danger.
What measure does the government contemplate for its sugar policy?  That
is, is the government prepared for the possibility of losing a part of the
American sugar market it has?  Is the government planning to sell sugar in
all countries, that is, throughout the world, even to those which lack
dollars?

***

Doctor Fidel Castro

You see, the first thing a country has to do is not to depend on a
single market nor on a single product.  And precisely one of the important
things in our situation is the fact that we are a country which depends
basically on one product -- sugar, and mainly on one market -- the United
States.  Thus, if there were no other reasons, if we had not pursued the
correct policy set forth for us by Marti in the last century, to the effect
that a country should not depend either on a sole product or on a single
market, it is not only because it is a basic question for us to produce
articles in order to purchase the machinery we cannot produce here, but it
is also a correct policy we have been trying to introduce.  We must
diversify our agriculture and our markets, because the more diversified the
agriculture and the markets of a country are, the more solid the economy
will be.  We must proceed with the development of what industrial products
we can and win such markets as we can, and if there is someone on the moon
who wants to purchase sugar, we will have to sell sugar to the moon.
-END-