US: President Trump Could Take Away Your Cuban Cigars

Source from:  patch.com 06/16/2017

President Trump is expected to travel to the heart of Miami's Little Havana on Friday and announce a shift in U.S. policy toward Cuba that could include a fresh ban on the much beloved Cuban cigar. While details of the announcement are being kept under wraps, one prominent Cuban-American expert in Miami tells Patch that such a ban would be seen as largely symbolic. Just don't tell that to American cigar lovers who have been snapping up Cuba's finest since travel restrictions were eased by President Obama.

"You might have again the ban on bringing cigars and rum to the U.S. but that’s probably just a symbolic gesture, not something that will affect a lot of people," acknowledged Jorge Duany, who heads up Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute, in an interview with Patch ahead of the president's visit.

To many Americans, cigars are the most recognizable symbol of the Communist island and more than five decades of rule by the late Fidel Castro, which is precisely why they may be targeted by President Trump. (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)

Cigar Aficionado once declared the hand-rolled Cuban cigars to be the "world's benchmark smokes."

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"One of the last changes made by the Obama administration was to first allow people to bring up to $100 worth of cigars and rum," explained Duany, whose organization has hosted dozens of Cuban scholars, writers, and artists that give lectures, work collaboratively with faculty and conduct research while also offering an undergraduate certificate program in Cuban and Cuban-American studies.

"Now, they can bring as many as they want as long as it’s not for resale, which is kind of hard to enforce."

While no one knows exactly what the president's new policy will include, a report in The Miami Herald said that the president is expected to make his announcement from the historic Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana.

Duany said that the location holds significance for Miami's sizable Cuban-American population and may hint at the substance of the President's remarks.

"If that says anything about what’s coming up, it’s probably that it will include some policies that will be supported by the hardliners in the Cuban-American community," he said, pointing to Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart among others.

"Almost everyone on the Cuban-American delegation to Congress actually were harshly critical of Obama’s policies and they all want to reaffirm the embargo, make it very difficult for Cuba to survive economically and to make sure that the embargo stays in place unless the Cuban government is willing to make concessions to the U.S. government," he said.

In a statement to Patch, Rubio said: "I am confident the president will keep his commitment on Cuba policy by making changes that are targeted and strategic and which advance the Cuban people's aspirations for economic and political liberty."

Sources familiar with the behind-the-scene discussions, tell Patch that Senator Rubio has been pushing the Trump administration to develop an approach toward Cuba that is consistent with the statutes already passed by Congress with an eye toward the next generation of leaders in Cuba as the heirs to Fidel Castro's revolution are mostly in their 80's now with only a limited time left to govern.

In addition to the cigar ban, Duany said the president is likely to make it more difficult for Americans to take advantage of the recently inaugurated passenger ship and commercial flight services between the two countries unless they meet one of 12 categories permitted for such travel, a requirement that has been loosely enforced.

"I think that’s probably one of the targets of the new policy — making it more difficult for U.S. citizens to travel to the island unless they really meet the requirements of one of the 12 categories: education exchanges, humanitarian reasons and religious reasons and so on," according to Duany. "Fewer people will be able to travel to Cuba as they have in the past two years and a half. There’s been also some discussion in the press about even making it more difficult for Cuban-Americans to travel, like once a year rather than as many (times) as they want."

He said that business relationships between U.S. corporations and state-owned Cuban companies with ties to the military are also likely to be targeted.

"There’s a lot of money also flowing to Cuba from Western Union and of course the telecommunications companies," he observed. "I don’t think those will be rolled back because it goes against the business instincts I think of the Trump administration."

If the Trump administration does throttle back on some of the U.S. investment in Cuba, it is likely that the slack will be picked up by China and Russia.

"Cuba has been courting Russia especially for it’s oil and the Chinese have been investing in Cuba quite significantly," Duany asserted. "It’s not a question of will they do that. It’s already happening. Of course Cuba is trying to diversify its sources of oil on the one hand, and also international support given the crisis in Venezuela which is right now it’s main partner." Enditem