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Cuba’s leadership signed off on a sweeping list of 176 market-liberalization measures covering 23 core areas, as the Caribbean nation tries to rescue a moribund economy that’s being squeezed by US sanctions.
The Communist Party’s central committee approved the measures late Wednesday, according to state-run newspaper Granma. The National Assembly has been called in for a special session to ratify them Thursday.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel first flagged the reforms last week and they touch almost all sectors of the economy, including energy, agriculture and foreign trade. But it’s unclear whether they will satisfy Donald Trump, who has imposed a de facto fuel blockade on the island and is aggressively expanding US sanctions in a bid to end nearly seven decades of one-party rule.
Without addressing the specific reforms, Vice President JD Vance said the US continues to negotiate with the government in Havana. “If they make smart decisions, we’re going to have a much better relationship with that island,” he told reporters Thursday at the White House.
The moves Cuba’s government highlighted include:
- Leveling the field for state-run and private enterprise, as well as foreign and domestic investors, by providing “uniform legal rules”
- Allowing the private sector to participate in more areas of the economy
- The elimination of most price controls, which the government acknowledged had failed to control inflation and distorted the economy
- Launching a renegotiation process to swap national debt for domestic assets
- Creating a “stable framework” to promote investment, technology transfers and donations from Cubans living abroad
- Authorizing direct foreign investment in the private sector, with rules regarding property ownership, dispute resolution and profit repartition
- Giving farmers access to foreign currency and the right to import their own raw material without state intermediaries
- Providing state-run businesses and municipalities more autonomy
- Merging state and government institutions to eliminate duplicate functions
- Eliminating taxes and tariffs on solar energy technology, and allowing foreign companies to supply panels, batteries and inverters directly to the market
- Fiscal deficit reduction through increased taxes and the slashing of unnecessary expenditures
Cari Stinebower, a partner at Washington-based international law firm Steptoe LLC and a former Treasury Department adviser, said the reforms are a reluctant concession from Havana.
“When you talk to government officials in Cuba they are still towing the party line and saying ‘We are an independent, sovereign nation and we don’t need to listen to the US,’” she said. “But in the background you see these reforms that reflect the fact that, in order for the economy to grow, they need the private sector without government interference. And they still need the influx of foreign capital.”
The moves are also a sign that Trump’s maximum pressure campaign is working, she said. The administration’s decision to impose secondary sanctions on foreign companies in Cuba has led to an exodus of hotel operators and mining companies that are vital to the economy.
That was “the final straw with respect to, gently or not so gently, forcing the government to make changes,” she said.
In addition to opening up the island’s economy, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are demanding political reforms and a change in leadership. The ever-tighter US stranglehold they’ve imposed has exacerbated blackouts and hobbled public health and transportation systems. The United Nations fears a brewing humanitarian crisis, pointing to a spike in infant-mortality rates among other indicators.
When asked if Cuba is next now that the US is finalizing a resolution to the war in Iran, Vance deferred to Rubio. “Fundamentally in Cuba, it is a system that hasn’t worked. They can’t make any money,” the vice president said.
Speaking after the central committee meeting Wednesday, Díaz-Canel blamed Cuba’s woes on the US economic embargo and broad sanctions that have scared away foreign corporations.
“Reality imposes urgent and necessary changes on us,” he said. “And when the life of the people becomes so hard, the first duty of the Communist Party and the revolutionary government is not to better explain the crisis, but to change what needs to be changed to get out of it.”
Cuba’s president also said the economic reforms had the blessing of Raúl Castro, the 95-year-old revolutionary leader who still holds symbolic sway over the nation. An indictment against Castro on murder charges stemming from the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft was unsealed by the US Department of Justice in May.
–With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.
This report is auto-generated from BLOOMBERG news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.