Cuba Dollar Tax Reveals Complexity of Trade Embargo
By MARC FRANK
HAVANA, Cuba, May 18, 2009
If you stand lookout from the housing projects along the back highway to
Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, you will eventually witness a
motorcade of Transval (Cuba's Brinks) armored vehicles speeding toward
the airport, surrounded by the flashing lights of police cars and
motorcycle cops.
Cuba Dollar Tax Reveals Complexity of Trade Embargo
In this file photo, U.S. tourists count U.S. dollar bills at a
handicrafts mall in Havana, Cuba.... Expand
Cuba's government is moving cash, mainly U.S. dollars, to somewhere on
the planet where a bank has agreed to process the bills for a few
percentage points above normal exchange rates.
Americans, unlike tourists from other countries, cannot use credit cards
drawn from U.S. banks in Cuba. Americans must use cash, because Cuban
banks are prohibited from any banking relations with their U.S.
counterparts. The catch 22: Under the U.S. trade embargo, it is also
illegal for Cuba to use dollars or for anyone anywhere to do business
with the country in U.S. currency.
"The U.S. embargo prohibits Cuba from using dollars for any reason.
Therefore, remittances come here, American travelers come here, it
doesn't matter who it is with dollars, they change them into Cuban
money," said Kirby Jones, president of the Washington-based Alamar
Associates, which consults on doing business with Cuba and the embargo.
Will Cuba Be Allowed to Use Dollars Again? - ABC News (18 May 2009)
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