The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a series of measures to allow small independent businesses in Cuba access to the US financial system and certain internet-based services, amid a deep economic crisis on the island.
The targeted relaxation of sanctions comes days after a fight over a visitor by Cuban authorities at Miami International Airport, and weeks after the United States removed Cuba from a list of countries that do not fully cooperate against terrorism, but left the island on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“We believe that the growth of an independent private business sector in Cuba, fully aligned with our values, is the best hope for generating economic development and employment in Cuba,” a senior administration official told journalists on Tuesday.
Under new rules implemented by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Cuban small businesses will be able to access video conferencing, social media, maps and other online services, and US-based entities will be able to provide cloud-based services . services to these companies.
OFAC is also expanding the definition of “independent individual” in Cuba to include “independent private sector entrepreneur,” a move that will allow a greater number of companies to benefit from sanctions relief. Only companies, cooperatives and sole proprietorships with up to 100 employees, without governing partners or members of the Communist Party, will be included in the program.
Grantee companies will also have access to U.S. bank accounts and payment platforms, including for “rollback” transactions or operations through the U.S. financial system where neither party is under U.S. jurisdiction.
Government officials said the measures are aimed at alleviating economic suffering and resulting migration.
“We know that the Cuban economy is in a difficult situation, amid recurring shortages of fuel, electricity and, increasingly, even food. It is clear that Cuba’s communist experiment has failed, the government is no longer able to satisfy the most basic needs of its citizens. In a country where there are no free elections, the Cuban people vote with their feet, including through the use of dangerous irregular migration routes,” said a government official.
However, the measures will almost certainly have a limited effect on tourism, a key industry that has been harmed by Cuba’s inclusion on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
This designation, for example, makes it more difficult for European travelers to come to the island and maintain U.S. visa exemptions.
After the State Department removed Cuba from the terrorism non-cooperation list but retained the country as a sponsor, Cuban officials criticized the unilateral designations.
“Recognizing that a country cooperates with United States counterterrorism efforts and at the same time accusing them without evidence of sponsoring terrorism seems like a contradiction and is a contradiction. The only explanation can be found in the arbitrary and political way in which the State Department creates these classification lists,” said Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s vice minister of foreign affairs, in an email to The Hill.
Biden administration officials said the two lists respond to different internal processes — the State Department conducts an annual review for inclusion or removal of countries on the cooperation list, but inclusion on the sponsorship list is determined separately by established “legal criteria.” by an advertisement. hoc review.
Administration officials declined to provide updates on the review of Cuba’s presence on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
Removing this list has explicitly been the Cuban government’s top priority in relations with the Biden administration.
Cuba was placed on that list in the final days of the Trump administration, in a move that forced the new Biden administration to choose between exerting economic pressure on the island – and encouraging migration – or taking an important public measure in support of the communist regime.
The Biden administration has chosen a cautious, middle-of-the-road approach, collaborating with Cuba on routine bilateral issues while avoiding major steps such as removing it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Yet even that approach drew ire from Republicans.
Last week, a visit by Cuban officials to Miami International Airport was met with sharp criticism from Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and Representatives Mario Díaz-Balart and María Elvira Salazar, whoexpressed their complaints in a letterto Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator David Pekoske.
But Cuban authorities insisted that the visit was routine and reciprocal, part of the two neighboring countries’ collaboration in civil aviation.
“The airport visit is part of existing bilateral cooperation aimed at ensuring that air traffic between the two countries is safe and in line with international regulations. It is known that Miami airport is the origin of most of the traffic from the United States to Cuba and that the majority of flights from Cuba to the United States have Miami as their destination,” said Carlos Fernández de Cossío, adding that northern authorities -American women visited five Cuban airports in January and February 2023 as part of the same program.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
