House Speaker Paul Ryan pledged to maintain the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba, despite the Obama administration’s effort to minimize it, including a new effort announced Friday that will let authorized U.S. visitors to buy more Cuban goods.
“As the past two years of normalizing relations have only emboldened the regime at the expense of the Cuban people, I fully intend to maintain our embargo on Cuba,” Ryan said in a statement.
The Obama administration last week announced new executive actions to further lift travel and trade restrictions with Cuba. The move has drawn both praise and criticism but is particularly opposed by Republicans, who say it will further empower the Cuban dictatorship.
But the Executive Branch can only do so much to ease or tighten travel and trade rules, and a decision to remove the embargo completely would have to be made by Congress. Ryan said that wouldn’t happen under his watch.
“The Castros continue to jail pro-democracy activists at a rate of hundreds per month, yet it is full steam ahead for the Obama administration’s efforts to appease this oppressive regime,” Ryan said. “President Obama’s latest move will only help finance the Castros’ grip on power and jeopardize the intellectual property rights of American businesses.”
