The day Florida votes in the presidential primary and ahead of President Obama’s historic trip to Havana this weekend, the White House has eased regulations on tourism and some financial rules with Cuba.
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Ever since announcing a Cuba policy shift in December 2014, the Obama administration has eased or scrapped a myriad of Cuba sanctions – although the US economic embargo on the island, which only Congress can lift, remains in place.
“Today’s amendments build upon President Obama’s historic actions to improve our country’s relationship with Cuba and its people”, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said in a statement.
The new regulations will reduce Cuba’s transaction costs in worldwide trade as well as remove another irritant remaining between the US and Cuban governments.
The U.S. government will soon award the first routes for commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba. “And that is what this change really aims to advance”, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters as he announced the changes. But the complete lifting of the embargo requires congressional action. “Your new regulations effectively authorize the Castro regime dictatorship to use the US financial system as a flow-through for their global transactions”.
Cuban athletes and entertainers can now travel to the USA and earn salaries, meaning Cuban baseball players, who have always been forced to defect in order to play in the major leagues, can get paid without renouncing their Cuban citizenship.
American travelers will be largely bound only by the honor system to declare that their travel is authorized, though US officials said they would be monitoring the situation.
DeLauro, D-3rd District, said the trip signifies a “new era” in U.S.-Cuba relations.
In addition, each country can operate 20 daily round-trip flights between the USA and Havana and 10 daily round-trip flights between the US and other worldwide airports in Cuba. If they choose, they can also open a US bank account. The Treasury Department said it would monitor compliance but offered no details, and White House officials suggested just about any interaction with Cubans would satisfy the requirement.
The new rules will increase the ability of Cubans in United States to earn stipends and salaries beyond living expenses, the departments said.
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That had infuriated the Cuban government, which accused the US of waging an economic war against Cuba around the world that overrode other countries’ laws allowing business with Cuba. Obama has called for the ending of the embargo.
