The latest package marks one of the most significant changes since Obama announced this historic opening to Cuba in December 2014 after decades of hostility between the two countries.
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Individuals may now travel to Cuba without being attached to a U.S.-based organization coordinating the trip, “provided that the traveler engages in a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities meant to enhance contact with the Cuban people, support civil society in Cuba, or promote the Cuban people’s independence from Cuban authorities and that will result in a meaningful interaction between the traveler and individuals in Cuba”.
Airline industry experts say USA carriers are lobbying to begin regular flights to Cuba because such routes will be in high demand, particularly from Cuban Americans around Miami and Los Angeles.
Correspondent accounts at third-country financial instruments also may be denominated in US dollars, and USA banks will be allowed to open and maintain bank accounts for Cuban citizens in Cuba who receive payments in the United States for authorized transactions and send those payments to Cuba.
The Obama administration punched a new series of holes in the US trade embargo on Cuba on Tuesday, turning a ban on USA tourism to Cuba into an unenforceable honor system and paving the way for Cuban athletes to one day play Major League Baseball and other US professional sports.
Cuba announced that the first direct mail in more than fifty years would fly from the U.S.to Cuba on Wednesday. Flake called it a big step when combined with agreements to allow regularly scheduled flights between the US and Cuba. “And now it is up to Congress to do its job and support the will and wishes of the majority of the American people by ending the trade and travel ban with Cuba”.
During a White House briefing Tuesday, the administration did acknowledge the Cuban government could do more to help renewed relations starting with getting rid of a 10 % penalty the government charges to use US dollars on the island.
Cubans can now earn a salary or compensation in the United States without having to renounce their Cuban citizenship, which could open the door to Cuban entertainers as well as the island’s widely admired pool of baseball talent. That plus strict limits that remain under the USA economic embargo against Cuba has made many American firms wary. Right now Americans are barred from flocking to Cuba for purely tourist reasons – a regulation enshrined in the embargo that can’t be lifted without congressional approval.
White House officials believe the new policy changes will put pressure on the Cuban government open up. “From that perspective, that’s how we implement the embargo”, Borman said.
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Vilsack said farmers were the most excited about the reopening of relations with Cuba, once a global sugarcane powerhouse. With Cuba’s centrally planned, export-dependent economy constantly short of cash for goods ranging from paint to heavy machinery, any interference with its ability to do business had outsize impact on the island’s decaying infrastructure.
