U.S. to Announce Further Easing of Cuba Restrictions Ahead of Obama Trip

President Obama's administration will announce further measures to ease travel and trade restrictions on Cuba on March 17, ahead of his historic visit to the island nation later this month, U.S. congressional sources said on Tuesday.

The anticipated announcement appears timed as a gesture toward Cuba just days before the president flies to Havana on March 21, in another step aimed at ending decades of animosity between the former Cold War foes.

The new rules will mark the latest effort by President Obama to use his executive powers to sidestep Congress and chip away at the more than half-century-old economic embargo against Cuba.

The measures are expected to include changes to make it easier for individual Americans to visit Cuba if they qualify under 12 authorized categories of travel, such as educational or cultural visits, as well as the further loosening of trade and banking rules, said the sources, who were briefed on the matter by administration officials.

Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, which had been severed in 1961 during the Cold War. On December 17, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced the beginning of a process of normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S., which media sources have named "the Cuban Thaw."

Negotiated in secret in Canada and Vatican City over preceding months, and with the assistance of Pope Francis, the agreement led to the lifting of some U.S. travel restrictions, fewer restrictions on remittances, U.S. banks access to the Cuban financial system, and the establishment of a U.S. embassy in Havana, which closed after Cuba became closely allied with the USSR in 1961.

The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20, 2015.

Source: Reuters