HAVANA--A South Carolina delegation signed a $10 million trade agreement Thursday with Cuba, opening a new market for Palmetto State farmers' agricultural goods.

In return, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Sharpe agreed to encourage South Carolina's congressional delegation to support lifting the long-standing Cuban trade embargo.

In doing so, they veered sharply from their national party's leadership. The Bush administration strongly opposes opening trade with Cuba because it says the country's communist government is repressive.

WADE SPEES/STAFF South Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Charles Sharpe (from right) speaks Thursday in Havana through interpreter Gilberto Bengochea after Alimport head Pedro Alvarez Borrego and Lt. Gov Andre Bauer signed a letter of intent opening the door to agricultural trade.

"Part of being a leader is doing what you feel is right," Bauer said. "I can only speak as a South Carolina official. (President Bush) has a much wider group of people he has to represent."

Cuba's import agency, Alimport, will pursue contracts with South Carolina agricultural suppliers for $10 million worth of wheat, paper, cattle, lumber, chicken, turkey, fruits and supermarket products, according to the agreement. Both sides hope to expand trade to include more products.

Several other states, including Kansas, Indiana and Iowa, have signed similar agreements since 2001, when the trade ban was eased to allow U.S. exports of agricultural products and medicine in exchange for cash-up-front payments. Since then, U.S. companies have sold an estimated $328 million worth of goods to Cuba, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York.

Both sides said they hope the agreement is the beginning of a long trade relationship that might expand to other goods. The trade agreements are part of a calculated strategy by Castro to pressure U.S. officials to lift the ban entirely.

"We definitely think you are taking the right course of action in order to get the changes you are looking for," Bauer told Cuba's foreign trade minister in a meeting in Cuba's capital later in the day. "It will change. It's just a matter of time."

Joining Bauer and Sharpe on the four-day trip are state Rep. Chip Limehouse and Maybank Shipping executives Jack Maybank, Jack Maybank Jr. and David Shimp. It's thought to be the first such trip by an official delegation from South Carolina in more than four decades.

The Maybanks, whose Charleston-based shipping firm has done business with Cuba since 2001, arranged this week's trade mission.

The agreement was signed before a press corps representing international media Thursday morning at Hotel Nacional, a famous waterfront hotel once controlled by the American Mafia.

The hotel is a monument to the strong trade and cultural ties that existed between the United States and Cuba before the countries broke off relations after the socialist revolution of Fidel Castro in 1959.

The Bush administration has said it will not support normalized trade and travel relations with Cuba until the country embraces democratic principles, but the administration is under tremendous pressure from American farming and business interests to lift the ban now.

Economists estimate the United States could immediately claim a substantial share of the $4 billion that Cuba spends on imports each year.

Cuban officials on Thursday accused Bush of pandering to a voting block of Cuban-Americans in Miami who fled Castro's regime and support the embargo.

South Carolina's congressional delegation is split along party lines, with Democrats supporting open trade and Republicans supporting the embargo.

Gov. Mark Sanford reiterated his support Thursday for opening commerce with Cuba in a letter delivered to Alimport Chairman and CEO Pedro Alvarez Borrego. As a congressman, Sanford visited Cuba and sponsored a bill aimed at allowing Americans to travel to Cuba.

Sharpe was on the phone to contacts in South Carolina on Thursday rounding up prices on the products called for in the agreement.

Provided the suppliers can obtain the necessary licenses from the U.S. government, shipments could begin arriving in Cuba by spring, Maybank said.

The food would be shipped from ports in others states such as Alabama and Florida, but the goal is eventually to send shipments from Charleston's port, Maybank said.