The death of Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary, has understandably sparked new questions about future U.S. relations with the island nation.
Among the questions is the impact on the expansion of trade, including the export of Arkansas products to Cuba.
The unknowns of the new Trump administration, which will take over in just little more than a month, further complicate the situation, of course.
But Cuba is a market Arkansas farmers, particularly rice producers, have long eyed, given the demand for foreign rice in this most proximate of potential markets.
Poultry producers, too, are bargaining with the Cuban government to provide tons of chicken to Cuba, which is just 90 miles from the U.S. border and in easy physical reach of Arkansas exports.
It has been political barriers that have blocked trade for more than 50 years, first during Fidel Castro's reign and later under his brother Raul Castro's leadership.
The Obama administration restored diplomatic ties between the U.S. and the island nation a couple of years ago, effectively reopening the potential for trade.
Now, Fidel Castro's death is seen as further impetus to negotiations for renewed trade.
"Our hope is that Fidel's death will help add speed to what has been a slow and methodical pace," wrote Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, recently.
"The Cuban people deserve access to the best, highest-quality foods. And Arkansas and American farmers deserve a new market so that they cannot just survive, but thrive," he said.
No one has expected rapid normalization of diplomatic relations, nor full cooperation in the U.S. with lifting some of the congressionally imposed trade restrictions. But credit Arkansas officials for trying to wedge open the opportunities.
Remember, Gov. Asa Hutchinson was the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba, leading an Arkansas delegation in 2015 to explore the possibilities. Another delegation from the World Trade Center of Arkansas this year made a follow-up visit to Cuba.
And there has been other, more private outreach from Arkansans as relations warmed under the Obama administration.
Donald Trump's election brought Twitter talk, however, from the president-elect of changes in U.S. policy, possibly wiping away the effects of Obama's outreach.
Trump said he wants a "better deal" for Cuba and the U.S., although in typical Trump fashion, he has offered no details.
Last week, in a news conference and in a later appearance before the Arkansas Farm Bureau, Gov. Hutchinson expressed hope that Trump will not return the U.S. to rigid trade restrictions with Cuba.
He acknowledged Trump's "hard line toward Cuba," but Hutchinson said he doesn't want the sale of Arkansas agricultural products taken off the table.
Hutchinson expects what he called a "fairly robust debate" about all of this and he apparently intends to be part of it.
Fidel Castro's death provides an opportunity the U.S. has never had before, Hutchinson said, despite the unknowns with Trump.
The governor wants to seize the moment and said he stressed the importance of a global market to Arkansas' economy when he got to talk with the president-elect.
Hutchinson was relaying part of the conversation to Arkansas Farm Bureau, whose members must be imagining all those Arkansas products heading down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and onto Cuban dinner tables.
Commentary on 12/07/2016