Trump Rolls Back ‘One-Sided’ Deal with Cuba
President Trump last week ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and clamped down on U.S. business dealings with the Caribbean island’s military.
This presidential directive rolls back parts of President Obama’s historic opening to the Communist-ruled country after a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough.
Trump left in place many of Obama’s changes, including the reopened U.S. embassy in Havana, even as he sought to make good on a campaign promise to take a tougher line against Cuba.
“Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Trump declared.
Trump’s revised approach calls for stricter enforcement of a longtime ban on Americans going to Cuba as tourists, and seeks to prevent U.S. dollars from being used to fund what the Trump administration considers a repressive military-dominated government.
Amid pressure from U.S. businesses and even some fellow Republicans, the president chose to leave intact some of his Democratic predecessor’s steps toward normalization.
The new policy bans most U.S. business transactions with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group, a Cuban conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy. But it makes exceptions, including for air and sea travel, according to officials. This will essentially shield American airlines and cruise lines serving the island.
“We do not want U.S. dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of Cuba,” Trump said, pledging that U.S. sanctions would not be lifted until Cuba frees political prisoners and holds free elections.
However, Trump stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations restored in 2015 after more than five decades of hostilities. He will not cut off recently resumed direct U.S.-Cuba commercial flights or cruise-ship travel, though his more restrictive policy seems certain to dampen new economic ties overall.
The administration, according to one White House official, has no intention of “disrupting” existing business ventures such as one struck under Obama by Starwood Hotels, which is owned by Marriott International, to manage a historic Havana hotel.
Nor does Trump plan to reinstate limits that Obama lifted on the amount of the island’s coveted rum and cigars that Americans can bring home for personal use.
The agriculture industry expressed disappointment.
“Cuba should be an easy market for U.S. corn farmers,” said Wesley Spurlock, president of the National Corn Growers Association. “Instead, that market has gone to our competitors—costing us an estimated $125 million in lost opportunity each year. If trade with Cuba were normalized, it would represent our 11th largest market for corn. Instead, we have just 11 percent market share in a country only 90 miles from our border.”
Source: Reuters, NCGA