President Obama’s low profile bilateral meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro taking place today the sidelines of the Summit of the America’s marks a new dawn in U.S. Cuban relations. The mere fact that this is the first high level government-to-government contact since then Vice President Richard Nixon met with Fidel Castro in 1959 during the Eisenhower Administration speaks volumes about the importance of this diplomatic initiative. There is even talk about imminent removal of Cuba from the State Department’s designated list of terrorist supporting countries. Could this lead to the removal of Cuba from OFAC sanctions and the removal of Cuba from Group E terrorist supporting countries on the Commerce Control List?
Over the coming months as regulatory changes develop, please be assured that TSI Global Consulting is and will continue to closely monitor and provide our clients with technical updates on concrete initiatives that relax economic sanctions and serve to open up trade with Cuba. Though trade with Cuba is still in its infancy and still largely prohibited, at TSI Global Consulting, we believe a new market for US exports and imports is now visible on the horizon. It is indeed the dawn of a new era in US-Cuban trade relations and please simply know that we will be here to provide advisory services (and perhaps even a trade mission or two) for our clients to explore business opportunities in Cuba in the months and years to come. Stay tuned!