President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday ending decades of Washington's policy of diplomatic and economic isolation for Cuba has dramatic implications.
The new approach will re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and dramatically revamp how people in Cuba and the United States are able to interact.
Among the highlights:
- In the coming months Washington will re-establish an embassy in Havana. The U.S. will also work with Cuba on such issues as migration, counternarcotics, trafficking in persons and the environment.
- Washington will amend its Department of Treasury and Commerce regulations to allow increased support for civil society in Cuba and the free flow of information.
- Travel licenses will be available for a variety of activities, making it easier for Americans to provide business training for private Cuban businesses and small farmers, and boost the growth of Cuba's private sector.
- Remittance levels will be raised from $500 to $2,000 per quarter, and support for the development of private businesses in Cuba will no longer require specific licenses.
- An expansion of commercial sales and exports from the United States of certain goods and services.
- Americans traveling to Cuba will be allowed to import additional goods.
- U.S. institutions will be able to open correspondent accounts and Cuban financial institutions, and U.S. credit and debit cards will be allowed to be used in Cuba.
- Washington will start new efforts to increase Cubans ability to communicate freely.
- Washington will review its 1982 designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
- Washington will discuss with Cuba and Mexico the unresolved maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico
