Tuesday’s announcement also allows Cubans working in the USA on visas, who were previously restricted to compensation for basic living expenses, to earn a salary.
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“It certainly does address the ability of Cuban athletes who can earn salaries in the United States to do so”, Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters. Restrictions on those activities had crippled Cuba’s ability to trade with third countries and became a major hindrance to the US attempt to normalize relations with Cuba. “During my visit, I intend to meet with dissidents, critics of the Cuban government”, he said during an interview with CNN en Español correspondent Juan Carlos Lopez.
U.S. President Barack Obama is set to travel to Cuba for a visit, the first by a sitting U.S. head of state since 1928. It also allows Cubans to use the USA dollar in financial transactions with US banks, and opens the US up to Cuban exports on a case-by-case basis. The US said it would continue its commercial, economic and financial embargo, which makes it illegal for US companies to do business with Cuba.
Among changes Cuba could make to increase the impact of the new US rules, said Rhodes, would be eliminating the 10 percent penalty charge on converting USA dollars to Cuban convertible pesos (CUCs) and allowing foreign firms operating in Cuba to directly hire their Cuban workers.
The moves by the Treasury and Commerce Departments are some of the most significant changes yet to advance the new policy of openness toward Cuba announced by President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro in 2014. Cuba and Major League Baseball have been negotiating over how Cuba’s formidable players could compete in the United States without using human traffickers to smuggle them from the island.
Instead, the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments said in a statement they would enact a range of changes to provide access to U.S. financial transactions for Cubans as well as to broaden access to the island for others.
Cuba has not figured heavily in the 2016 presidential race but it could emerge, especially in Florida, a swing state and home to the largest Cuban-American community. The Starwood hotel chain says it soon expects to get US approval to manage hotels in Cuba.
In another landmark, US-Cuba direct mail service will be reestablished Wednesday for the first time in more than a half-century, with the first direct mail flight, the Cuban postal service announced.
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Josh Lederman contributed from Washington.
