CFR Update 1/16 United States Eases Cuba Travel and Trade Restrictions

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United States Eases Cuba Travel and Trade Restrictions

Editor's Note: There will be no Daily Brief on Monday, January 19. The DB will resume on Tuesday, January 20.

New rules (Reuters) on travel and trade with Cuba take effect on Friday, bringing Washington and Havana closer to normalized relations, the Obama administration announced Thursday. Under the new measures, U.S. travellers will not need to seek advance approval to travel (WaPo) to Cuba, and U.S. commercial carriers may seek permission to fly directly to the island. The move grants U.S. telecommunications, financial, and agricultural firms new business opportunities (NYT) in Cuba, even as the United States' fifty-four year trade embargo against Cuba remains in place. The announcement comes ahead of high-level (LA Times) meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials in Havana next week. 

Analysis

"U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent move to normalize relations with Cuba has been called 'historic,' 'courageous' and 'a moral victory.' Surely any deal so hailed must carry economic consequences of similar magnitude. But that’s unlikely — and for the same reasons that America’s economic embargo against Cuba has for decades found slim policy justification and even slimmer odds of removal," writes CFR's Jennifer Harris in Forbes.

"The agreement reached between the Obama administration and the Cuban government is by any measure historic, necessary, and overdue. Even many critics of the Castro regime recognize as much, albeit with resignation. Yet as the diplomatic rubber hits the road and Cuba continues its precarious transition to a mixed economy with rising inequalities, old disputes may take on new forms," writes Michael J. Bustamante for Foreign Affairs.

"In re-establishing relations with Cuba, the United States renounces its 'imperial destiny' and recovers much of the moral legitimacy needed to uphold the democratic values that led to its foundation (and also of the countries of Latin America). Obama’s action is meant for the good of all the Americas, including the United States. And freedom of expression in Cuba is an absolute necessity for its success," writes Enrique Krauze in the New York Times.