United States eases trade restrictions with Cuba

Daily News Article   —   Posted on January 29, 2016

(BBC News) – The United States eased a number of trade restrictions with Cuba’s communist government on Tuesday, in President Barack Obama’s latest attempt to bypass the US Congress’s economic embargo on the island.

American companies are now allowed to lend money to Cuban entrepreneurs and to invest in infrastructure projects.

The new measures also make it easier for US studios to shoot films in Cuba.

President Obama restored relations with Cuba last year in a first step toward achieving his goal of re-establishing diplomatic relations with the communist government there.

President Obama has urged Congress to lift a Cold War-era embargo that bans most trade between US companies and the communist-run island.  [Only Congress can end the five-decade embargo.]

Congress has ignored his pleas, but over the past year the Obama administration has announced several measures to encourage trade and a normalization of relations between the two long-time foes. [Although most U.S. trade with Cuba remains banned under the economic embargo, President Obama has been using executive authority to allow commerce that is not specifically banned by Congress.]

The latest measures were announced by the US Commerce Department on Tuesday and came into force on Wednesday.

The key difference between this announcement and earlier efforts to ease trade with Cuba by the Obama administration is that this time the new rules will apply to trade with Cuban government agencies.

Previous steps were solely aimed at strengthening private entrepreneurs on the island, explains the BBC’s Will Grant in Havana.

The easing of export restrictions will apply on a case-by-case basis in areas which “directly benefit the Cuban people,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

She cited “disaster preparedness, education, agricultural production, food processing and public transportation.”

The measures also lift further restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba, making the current ban on tourism more difficult to enforce.

The embargo has been in place since 1960 and remains a contentious issue in relations between Cuba and the US.

President Raul Castro said at the UN General Assembly in September that now that diplomatic ties were back in place, the overall normalization of relations “will only be achieved with the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.”

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Background

U.S. Secretary of Commerce is a Cabinet position:

• One of the principal purposes of the President's Cabinet (drawn from Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution) is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of their respective offices.  Department heads advise the President on policy issues and help execute those policies.
• The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments - the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General.  (from bensguide)  

The Commerce Secretary is concerned with promoting American businesses and industries; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce."

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Sue Pritzker is an American billionaire businesswoman, entrepreneur and civic leader who is currently serving as the 38th United States Secretary of Commerce. She is the founder of PSP Capital Partners and Pritzker Realty Group. He father was a co-founder of Hyatt Hotels.

In July, 2008, Pritzker and her husband hosted a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Obama's campaign in Chicago with billionaire businessman Warren Buffett and his wife, and Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett.

She was national co-chair of Obama for America 2012 and was the national finance chair of President Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.

Pritzker was nominated as United States Secretary of Commerce by President Barack Obama on May 2, 2013. (from wikipedia)