U.S. eases Cuba trade, travel rules

Alan Gomez | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Traveling to Cuba? What you need to know USA TODAY Reporter Alan Gomez discusses the new amendment President Obama issued on Thursday allowing U.S. citizens to visit Cuba and how people can apply.

Americans looking to travel to Cuba will soon be able to jump online, find a flight and head straight down after the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments unveiled a set of rules Thursday that ease travel and trade restrictions to the island nation.

One of the most notable changes — which take effect Friday — is that Americans will no longer need to get approval from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control before embarking on a trip to Cuba.

As long as Americans certify they are traveling through one of 12 approved categories — which include educational, religious and humanitarian trips — they can simply head to the island. Traveling to Cuba solely as a tourist remains prohibited.

U.S. air carriers will be able schedule flights there without getting a special license from the government after the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Security update their rules to accommodate the new flights.

"Cuba has real potential for economic growth, and by increasing travel, commerce, communications and private business development between the United States and Cuba, the United States can help the Cuban people determine their own future," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement Thursday.

President Obama announced the decision last month to normalize relations with the communist country after more than five decades of political and economic isolation. The historic deal includes the establishment of embassies in Washington and Havana.

Americans in Cuba had been restricted to spending $188 a day in Cuba for hotels, meals and other incidentals, but that limit will be lifted under the new rules. For the first time, Americans can also return to the USA with up to $100 in Cuban rum and cigars and a total of $400 in goods. In addition, U.S. residents will be able to use their credit and debit cards on the island, a move that is currently restricted and forces Americans to pay for their entire trips in cash.

U.S. companies will be able to sell more resources directly to Cuba's small-business sector. More than 500,000 Cubans work outside the state-run system, and the new rules allow Americans to provide microfinancing to those businesses and sell them a wide variety of materials, equipment and tools.

The regulations open the door for American firms to help build up the island's struggling telecommunication industry. U.S. businesses will be allowed to sell communication devices, software, hardware and services to improve Cuba's infrastructure, including Internet-based services.

U.S. companies will be able to sell environmental equipment to Cuba to help the country improve air and water quality and protect its coastlines from oil spills and other disasters.

Critics of the deal have blasted Obama for not guaranteeing changes to Cuba's dismal human rights record, citing the arrests of political protesters. Two weeks ago, Cuban authorities detained at least three dissidents trying to conduct a public protest in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution.

There's also concern Obama's approach violates the economic embargo that requires congressional action to overturn.

"This is a windfall for the Castro regime that will be used to fund its repression against Cubans, as well as its activities against U.S. national interests in Latin America and beyond," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Cuban American who has been one of Obama's sharpest critics over the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. "Given existing U.S. laws about our Cuba policy, this slew of regulations leave at least one major question President Obama and his administration have failed to answer so far: What legal authority does he have to enrich the Castro regime in these ways?"

As part of the deal to normalize relations, Cuba agreed to release an American aid worker and an American intelligence asset who had been jailed on the island for years. The nation said it would release 53 political prisoners, a move the U.S. State Department said was completed this week. In return, the United States sent back three Cubans convicted in U.S. courts of espionage charges.

In announcing the deal last month, Obama said an influx of Americans and their investments would better position Cubans to improve their lives and challenge their government to improve its human rights record. White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated that sentiment Thursday.

"These changes will immediately enable the American people to provide more resources to empower the Cuban population to become less dependent upon the state-driven economy and help facilitate our growing relationship with the Cuban people," Earnest said. "The policy of the past has not worked for over 50 years, and we believe that the best way to support our interests and our values is through openness rather than isolation."