President Trump will announce new trade rules with Cuba intended to keep dollars out of the hands of the country’s military and intelligence agencies, said senior White House officials in advance of a presidential speech today in Miami. The officials held some provisions in reserve for Trump to announce, but their outline indicated that food and ag exports would not be affected.
In general, the new regulations, to be written in coming weeks, would prohibit direct financial transactions with entities controlled by Cuba’s military or intelligence arms. They would also end the options for individuals to identify travel to the island as people-to-people outreach. In the future, people-to-people contact will be limited to group travel.
One of the officials said there would be an exemption from the prohibition on doing business with military- and intelligence-affiliated groups. The Cuban military runs the port of Mariel, where U.S. food and ag cargoes are unloaded.
“It [food and ag trade] shouldn’t be impacted unless, under the review process, they decide to identify the port of Mariel as military-controlled” and require delivery to a different port, said John Kavulich of the U.S.–Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which monitors commerce between the countries. “The Cuban government would have to react to that. It would increase the cost of freight. … They probably would reduce purchases” of U.S. products.
A 2000 law exempts the sale of U.S. food and agriculture products from the overall U.S. trade embargo, which dates from the Cold War. U.S. farm groups view Cuba as a natural market and want to expand sales. In 2016, sales to Cuba totaled $232 million.
The U.S. group Engage Cuba, which advocates an end of the trade embargo, said Trump’s approach “is bad policy, bad politics, and bad for U.S. business.”
Trump has criticized the resumption of diplomacy and a thaw in relations with Cuba—an Obama administration initiative—as a bad deal that must be revised. The White House officials said that if Cuba wants closer ties with the United States, it should take such steps as holding free elections or releasing political prisoners.