Cuban businessmen can now open bank accounts in the United States.
It is one of the new measures announced by Joe Biden’s government to promote the development of the emerging private sector on the island, which is going through a severe economic crisis.
Starting this Tuesday, entrepreneurs can “remotely open, maintain and use US bank accountsincluding through online payment platforms, to carry out transactions,” the Treasury Department announced in a statement.
It specified that the account holder may be physically located in Cuba, the United States or a third country.
The Treasury too authorized “U-turn” transferswhich Donald Trump’s administration had banned Cubans in 2019.
These are fund transfers that begin and end outside the United States, where neither the sender nor the recipient is under US jurisdiction.
“Support for the Cuban people”
According to the US government, the measures facilitate payments for transactions in the Cuban private sector, as well as remittances.
They benefit “private cooperatives, small private companies and sole proprietorships located in Cuba with up to 100 employees” and They exclude noted officials of the Cuban government and the Cuban Communist Party “to ensure that US actions intended to benefit independent private sector entrepreneurs are not taken advantage of,” according to the statement.
Private restaurants could benefit, since many of them handle foreign currency.
Photo:
The measures are part of the “support for the Cuban people” policy announced by the Biden government in May 2022 and reverse some of the strong restrictions imposed by the previous Donald Trump administration.
During his term (2017-21) Trump toughened sanctions on Cuba within the framework of the financial and commercial embargo that the United States has imposed on it for six decades, and included the country on the list of sponsors of terrorism, which further limited its international transactions.
The communist regime of Cuba, a country in permanent economic crisis since the 90s, has allowed the establishment of some private businesses in the last three decades.
It has been gradually opening its economy to private capital, although with many restrictions and in specific sectors.
In Cuba today there are about 11,000 private companies which generate approximately a third of jobs, according to government data.
Limited scope?
Experts agree that It is too early to know the scope and effects of these measures, which will be seen in the coming months.
Some, for now, have shown skepticism.
“This is undoubtedly progress, but is subject to a number of practical limitations that can limit its impact,” Cuban economist Ricardo Torres, a researcher at the American University in Washington DC, told BBC Mundo.
Torres believes that the measures would only benefit a minority group of Cuban businessmen: those who are engaged in international trade or import products from the United States.
“For the majority it will not change their lives, because they do not carry out international transactions,” he points out.
For many self-employed workers, such as bicycle taxi drivers or street vendors, the measure would not mean any change.
Photo:
Another limitation, he points out, has to do with the role of US banks.
“The government will authorize Cubans to open accounts in the United States, but it does not force banks to open those accounts for them. They are private entities and they may refuse to get involved in this type of operation to avoid legal problems in the future,” he explains.
Thus, for banking entities the cost-benefit ratio may not be too attractive, he points out.
And to this is added political uncertainty which, with less than six months until the US presidential elections, conditions both Cuban banks and businessmen who want to benefit from the new measures.
“The same Cuban businessman may think: ‘why am I going to open the account if Trump later wins the elections and they close it?’” he exemplifies.
Government criticism
The Cuban government also considered that the new United States measures are “limited” and protested because “they do not touch the body of the blockage”, in reference to the embargo.
“They also do not modify the extreme measures and regulations applied by the governments of former President Donald Trump and the current president, Joe Biden,” said Johana Tablada, deputy director for the United States of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Johana Tablada, representative of the Cuban government, criticized the measure.
Photo:
Tablada alleged that the provisions exclude the majority of the Cuban population and predicted that it will be difficult to apply them due to the country’s inclusion on the list of sponsors of terrorism.
“When President Barack Obama (2009-2017) announced them, they could not be carried out. Banks were terrified of fines stipulated by the blockade,” indicated the official agency Prensa Latina, quoting the representative of the Cuban government.
It also accused the US of trying to turn the private sector into a “agent for change what they want here, which is nothing more than regime change” and “trying to separate, through announcements and strategies, the private sector from the public.”
However, he stated that “Cuba is studying these decisions and, if they do not violate national legislation and mean a true opening, even for a segment of the population, will not put obstacles in your application”.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
#Cuba #responds #United #States #measures #exist #support #businessmen