Cuba objects to the continuing embargo, and is short of money to purchase US technology and products, even within the small range that is newly permitted.
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“When it happens, the United States will be in a very good position to reclaim a portion of the market we’ve lost”.
The various steps were mostly minor and technical but add up to the continuing erosion of Congress-mandated restrictions on interactions with Cuba and Cubans as the Obama administration seeks to end the decades-old embargo on the country. After leaving Cuba late Tuesday, he will spend two days in Argentina, where the administration is trying to build a relationship with newly elected President Mauricio Macri after years of estrangement under previous governments.
While Cuba’s lack of cash and labyrinthine bureaucracy are obstacles to any new business here, many experts believe that the Communist government is delaying trade with the U.S.in order to build pressure on Congress to do away with the embargo entirely. “It’s time to make a break from the past”, he said during a previously scheduled appearance at the National Press Club in Washington.
“Today we are building on this progress by facilitating travel for additional Americans looking to engage with Cubans; allowing Cuban citizens to earn a salary in the United States; and expanding access to the USA financial system as well as trade and commercial opportunities”, said Lew.
The loosened rules for salaries specifically mention athletes, artists and performers as potential beneficiaries.
On Monday afternoon he will attend a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team.
John Caulfield, who served as the chief of the US mission in Cuba from 2011 to 2014, said the change would expose Americans to a more authentic experience in Cuba than they have been able to get on organized tours. They’ll have to keep records for five years about what they did in Cuba, but won’t have to submit the records unless asked.
U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, has called the trip an “embarrassing visit” that rewards the Castro dictatorship and weakens America. Meanwhile, his administration has now eliminated a once-unimaginable number of trade and travel limits through executive action.
“He heard every one of us say what we wanted to say he listened attentively took notes and said that everything we said would be taken under serious consideration”, said one woman who met the president. His company continues to offer flights from Florida.
Vilsack said farmers were the most excited about the reopening of relations with Cuba, once a global sugarcane powerhouse.
Americans can now travel alone after asserting it’s an educational, “people-to-people” experience.
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“The travel ban is on life support here, because for all intents and purposes, anybody can go”, said Sen.
