The Obama administration unveiled new details of its plans to normalize relations with Cuba by announcing new regulations easing sanctions on the island nation that go into effect Friday.
The U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments are planning to publish the revised regulations that implement the president’s Dec. 17 executive action to take steps to roll back restrictions on travel and business relationships with Cuba. The Washington Examiner first reported on the administration’s plans to announce the new Cuba regulations Thursday morning.
In announcing the historic changes to the U.S.-Cuba policy, the Treasury said the measures would facilitate travel to Cuba for authorized purposes, allow U.S. financial institutions to open “correspondent accounts” at Cuban financial institutions, authorize certain transactions with Cuban nationals located outside Cuba and allow a number of other activities related to telecommunications, finance, trade and shipping.
“We firmly believe that allowing increased travel, commerce and the flow of information to and from Cuba will allow the United States to better advance our interests and improve the lives of ordinary Cubans,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
Earnest also argued that 50 years of restrictions and sanctions against Cuba have not worked to help to empower the Cuban people and bring about democratic reforms.
“We believe that the best way to support our interests and our values is through openness rather than isolation,” he said. “The United States remains committed to our enduring objective of promoting the emergence of a more prosperous Cuba that respects the universal rights of all its citizens.”
The changes to U.S. Cuba regulations are extensive and complicated, and opponents argue the devil is in the details.
The regulations will not allow travel strictly for recreational or tourism purposes but will expand visits to the country for family, official business of the U.S. government, journalistic activity, professional research and professional meetings, educational activities, religious, humanitarian and trade purposes, among others. Authorized travelers will be able to use their U.S. credit and debt cards in Cuba with no limits on spending.
Although many export and import restrictions will remain, the new rules lift several of them.
In terms of imports of Cuban cigars and others goods into the U.S., authorized U.S. travelers will be allowed to take up to $400 worth of goods acquired in Cuba for personal use, including no more than $100 in alcohol or tobacco products.
Travel agents and airlines can provide authorized travel without applying to the U.S. government for a special license, and U.S. insurers will be able to provide health, life and travel-insurance for travelers.
To spur the flow of information and business between the two countries, the new regulations will allow the establishment of commercial telecommunications facilities linking Cuba to the U.S. and other countries. The rules also will allow the sale of certain consumer communications devices and related software.
The new regulations will allow all exports that fall under three broad areas: those that are geared to improving living conditions, supporting independent economic activity and strengthening civil society. Building materials to construct or renovate private businesses, homes and places for religious worship will be allowed, along with tools and equipment to support private agricultural activity.
Opponents of Obama’s decision to normalize relations with Cuba heard about the administration’s plans late Wednesday afternoon and began bracing for the announcement.
Capitol Hill was caught off guard by the administration’s swift action on the issue, and one GOP source told the Examiner that the move suggests that the administration was planning its executive action easing relations with Cuba well before Dec. 17.
Earlier Wednesday two top opponents of Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Cuban-American and Dan Coats, R-Ind., sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asking for detailed information about how Obama plans to implement the president’s new approach.
In the letter, obtained by the Examiner, Rubio and Coats expressed deep concern about several aspects of Obama’s new approach to Cuba, especially those related to “unilaterally easing U.S. sanctions.”
The pair said Obama’s Cuba executive action violates the letter and spirit of several U.S. laws and “increases the moral and financial risk to the American taxpayer and financial system of doing business through Cuba’s government-controlled financial system.”
The letter specifically asks about Obama’s assertion on Dec. 17 that U.S. institutions will be permitted to open “correspondent accounts” at Cuban financial institutions “to facilitate the processing of authorized transactions.”
Rubio and Coats then point out that the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act explicitly prohibits U.S. assistance and financing to Cuba and provides no presidential waiver. Another law, they noted, prohibits any financing of transactions involving confiscated property belonging to U.S. nationals.
Referring to “stark differences between the letter of the law and the administration’s announcement,” Rubio and Coats asked Lew several specific questions, including what legal authority the administration has to establish “correspondent accounts” in Cuba and allow travelers to Cuba to use U.S. credit and debit cards.
A senior Obama administration official told reporters Thursday that Commerce and Treasury Department officials have worked closely to ensure that the new regulations are lawful.
“We have looked at all of the provisions of the relevant laws, and we have worked within those laws and worked to remain not only within the letter but within the spirit of those laws,” the official said.
Rubio and Coats also want to know the answer to several other questions, including what legal authority the administration plans to cite for travel beyond nonacademic limitations set up in 2000.
In addition, they asked how the U.S. will enforce and protect Cuban-Americans that U.S. courts have determined are owed money by the Cuban government and how the executive action will affect that legal action and outstanding judgments.
When it comes to U.S. investment in Cuban telecommunications services, Rubio and Coats asked what legal authority the administration has to allow it, citing the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, which they argue includes a direct prohibition on such investment.
“The fact that the administration has been unable to answer these and many other questions almost a month after the president’s announcement, raises serious concerns about the process which preceded it,” they argued. “We thus would like to know whether the Treasury Department was even consulted regarding these significant policy changes regarding Cuba, and if so, on what date.”
