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Under new guidelines for Cuba-related applications, the U.S. agency in charge of enforcing sanctions is encouraging sending funds to private businesses on the island.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) created a license category allowing remittances “to individuals or independent non-governmental entities to support the development of private businesses, including small farms.”
Assistance to a private business in Cuba up to $2,000 per year can be sent without having to apply for a license; amounts in excess of $2,000 can be sent after OFAC grants a specific license.
The Cuban government is encouraging the creation of small businesses and private farming. More than 180,000 “self-employment” licenses have been issued since last fall, and the government granted more than 110,000 long-term leases of fallow farmland to private farmers.
As examples, OFAC cites “a U.S. charitable organization [wishing] to transfer funds to Cuba to support the rebuilding of poultry production farms and to provide training sessions to local poultry farmers,” and “an individual [wishing] to send $1,000 to a Cuban national to buy the equipment necessary to start a small business.”
[...] Cuba Standard, April 21: New OFAC guidelines encourage funding of prĂvate business http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/04/21/new-ofac-guidelines-encourage-funding-of-private-businesses/ [...]
[...] In other news the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released new guidelines for Cuba travel and remittance transfers. Though President Obama had announced these new regulations on January 14th, they did not officially go into effect until the guidelines were published this week. The new rules make it easier for U.S. schools, churches and cultural groups to visit Cuba, and increase the amount of money all Americans can send to the island to support its growing private economy. [...]
[...] the U.S. are, in fact, partly intended to foster the growth of private enterprise on the island, Cuba Standard reports. However, this reality creates the potential for increased inequality for historically [...]