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May 5, 2016

Most companies must wait to go to Cuba

  • Travel and telecom firms are starting up there, but most exports and other businesses are still prohibited under an embargo Congress passed in 1960 that only Congress can lift.
    • By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG
    AP Business Writer

    NEW YORK — The thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations has many small and medium-sized companies thinking about doing business with the nation that has largely been off-limits for more than half a century. Most companies, however, will have to wait.

    The Obama administration has taken steps that allow companies in the travel and telecommunications industries to work with Cuba, but most exports and other business contacts remain prohibited under an embargo Congress passed in 1960 in response to Communist rule in Cuba. Because of the embargo, the U.S. exported only $180 million in goods to Cuba last year, most of it agricultural products and medicine. By comparison, exports to nearby El Salvador totaled nearly $3.3 billion. Only Congress can lift the embargo, and it's not known when that might happen — some lawmakers are against ending it because of charges of human rights violations by the Castro government.


     
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