Mon, 17 Jan 2011 8:30. Cuba on Sunday criticized a US move easing restrictions on travel and remittances to the island as "very limited," and said it would keep a decades-old trade embargo intact."Although the measures are positive, they... are very limited in scope, and they don't change the policy toward Cuba," the foreign ministry said in a statement.">Mon, 17 Jan 2011 8:30. Cuba on Sunday criticized a US move easing restrictions on travel and remittances to the island as "very limited," and said it would keep a decades-old trade embargo intact."Although the measures are positive, they... are very limited in scope, and they don't change the policy toward Cuba," the foreign ministry said in a statement.">

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Cuba bemoans US embargo

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 8:30. Cuba on Sunday criticized a US move easing restrictions on travel and remittances to the island as "very limited," and said it would keep a decades-old trade embargo intact.

"Although the measures are positive, they... are very limited in scope, and they don't change the policy toward Cuba," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said the US measures announced on Friday, which were to take effect in two weeks, "confirm that there is not the will to change the policy of blockades and destabilization against Cuba."

The United States on Friday eased restrictions on visas, remittances and travel under its embargo on Cuba. TThe move would expand religious and educational travel between the United States and Cuba, and would allow any US airport to offer charter flights to Cuba.

It also will permit remittances of up to $2,000 per year to non-family members in Cuba "to support private economic activity, among other purposes."

However, "these measures will benefit only certain categories of Americans and do not restore the right of all Americans to visit Cuba," the document said.

Americans "will remain the only people in the world who cannot visit our country freely," the ministry noted.

In announcing the easing of the sanctions Friday, US President Barack Obama also ordered that all US international airports will be able to provide charters to and from Cuba.Currently, only New York, Miami and Los Angeles airports have that privilege.

The US embargo on Cuba was partially imposed in 1960, just after Fidel Castro staged his revolution, became law in 1962 and is now the biggest remaining hangover from the Cold War. The United States bans trade with and most travel to Cuba.

But Obama has the power, under legislation passed in 2000, to regulate 12 categories of authorized travel to Cuba.

He used his presidential authority in 2009 to reverse the Bush administration's tightened restrictions on immediate family travel and allowed Cuban Americans to send remittances to relatives.

But he cannot lift the embargo on Cuba unless the move is authorized by Congress, an unlikely prospect.

Source: http://business.iafrica.com/worldnews/698726.html

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