• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 01 / 16 / 2011

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By Doug Newhouse, 15 January 2011. US President Barack Obama yesterday directed that regulations governing the eligibility of US airports to serve as points of 'embarkation and return' for licensed charter flights to Cuba should be modified to allow all US international airports to apply to provide these services - provided they have adequate customs and immigration services in place.

The new directive is another step forward in improving relations between the US and Cuban governments and comes on the back of the April 2009 decision to ease embargo procedures related to money transfers and immediate-relative visitor permits.

A statement from The White House in Washington said yesterday that President Obama has now directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security to take a series of steps to continue efforts 'to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future'.

'PROMOTING INDEPENDENCE'

The statement said: "The President has directed that changes be made to regulations and policies governing: (1) purposeful travel; (2) non-family remittances; and (3) US airports supporting licensed charter flights to and from Cuba. These measures will increase people-to-people contact; support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people.


THE PROPOSED CHANGES

The statement adds that the directed changes described below will be enacted through modifications to existing Cuban Assets Control and Customs and Border Protection regulations and policies and will take effect upon publication of modified regulations in the Federal Register within the next two weeks. The changes as listed are as follows:

Purposeful Travel. To enhance contact with the Cuban people and support civil society through purposeful travel, including religious, cultural, and educational travel, the President has directed that regulations and policies governing purposeful travel be modified to: Allow religious organizations to sponsor religious travel to Cuba under a general license;

Facilitate educational exchanges by: allowing accredited institutions of higher education to sponsor travel to Cuba for course work for academic credit under a general license; allowing students to participate through academic institutions other than their own; and facilitating instructor support to include support from adjunct and part-time staff; Restore specific licensing of educational exchanges not involving academic study pursuant to a degree programme under the auspices of an organization that sponsors and organizes people-to-people programmes; Modify requirements for licensing academic exchanges to require that the proposed course of study be accepted for academic credit toward their undergraduate or graduate degree (rather than regulating the length of the academic exchange in Cuba);

Allow specifically licensed academic institutions to sponsor or co-sponsor academic seminars, conferences, and workshops related to Cuba and allow faculty, staff, and students to attend;Allow specific licensing to organize or conduct non-academic clinics and workshops in Cuba for the Cuban people;Allow specific licensing for a greater scope of journalistic activities; Restore a general license category for any US person to send remittances (up to $500 per quarter) to non-family members in Cuba to support private economic activity, among other purposes, subject to the limitation that they cannot be provided to senior Cuban government officials or senior members of the Cuban Communist Party; Create a general license for remittances to religious institutions in Cuba in support of religious activities.

Source: www.trend-news.com/default.asp?newsid=9322