Ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, economical and political relations between the democratic United States of America and communist Cuba have been severely strained –until recently under current President Obama’s administration. On Friday, October 14, 2016, President Obama continued his declared 2014 détente with Cuba by eliminating the $100 limit on the value of Cuban rum and cigars that authorized American travelers were permitted to bring back from their Cuban travels. Travelers are now permitted to bring back thousands of dollars in products, as many as 100 cigars, which can be valued upwards to $100 a piece in America, and several bottles of rum.
What does this mean for Americans, and for Cubans?
For Americans, the purchase of Cuban rum and cigars within the country, online, and from third-party nations has been illegal for the past half century. The recently lifted trade embargo will not only now allow Americans to enjoy these products for their personal consumption, but it may also create an incentive for profiteers to establish unauthorized black markets for distribution of the two highly coveted luxuries to those who are not authorized to travel to Cuba. This is similar to the American prohibition era of the 1920s, where the illegality of alcohol led to the underground production and distribution of the product. Although the current circumstances of the situation may vary slightly from then, the overall theme of profiteers looking to supply highly demanded, but illegal products to the masses stay consistent to the history of the 1920s.
For the centrally planned Cuban government and general population of Cubans, the lifted trade embargoes will mean great economic and political prosperity. This news story will most definitely be considered by leaders of Cuban rum and cigar productions in their next PEST analysis, to alter their business strategies and market towards American travelers, who, historically, have been legally restricted from these products. The increased rum and cigar sales will also mean millions of dollars of generated revenue for the government, and a step into the modernization of the Cuban economy that emphasizes international trade. For the vast Cuban population, this step towards international trade can also be interpreted as a step towards releasing Cuba from the Castro communist rule of the past fifty years, a scene that may seem to mirror the glasnost and perestroika policies of the communist Soviet Union that led to their collapse just twenty-five years prior.
With the upcoming US elections, this move to relieve American – Cuban tensions may be one of the last moves that the Obama administration makes, and it will take the next President who will soon take office in the White House to continue President Obama’s legacy.
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Sources:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/u-s-removes-limits-on-bringing-in-cuban-rum-cigars-1.3115128
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fall-of-soviet-union
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