Fact Sheet: Treasury Amends Cuban Assets Control Regulations,To Implement the President's Initiative on,Family Visits, Remittances, and Telecommunications

September 3, 2009
TG-273

Fact Sheet: Treasury Amends Cuban Assets Control Regulations
To Implement the President's Initiative on
Family Visits, Remittances, and Telecommunications

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control
(OFAC) today issued a final rule amending the Cuban Assets Control
Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 515 (CACR), to implement the President's
initiative of April 13, 2009, to reach out to the Cuban people in
support of their desire to freely determine their country's future,
promote greater contact between separated family members in the United
States and Cuba, and increase the flow of remittances and information to
the Cuban people.

Today's amendments to the CACR change the rules in three major areas:
(1) family visits; (2) family remittances; and (3) telecommunications.
These amendments also make certain technical and conforming changes to
the CACR.

Family visits. OFAC has eased restrictions on travel-related
transactions for visits to "close relatives" who are nationals of Cuba
by issuing a general license.

* Travelers may visit "close relatives" (including, for example,
aunts, uncles,cousins, and second cousins) who are nationals of Cuba.
* There is no limit on the duration of a visit to these "close
relatives."
* There is no limit on the frequency of visits to these "close
relatives."
* Authorized expenditure limits for travel within Cuba have been
increased to match the expenditures allowed for all other authorized
categories of travel to Cuba -- specifically, the current State
Department "per diem rate" for Havana (for use anywhere in Cuba) plus
amounts for additional transactions directly incident to visiting close
relatives in Cuba. The current "maximum per diem rate" is $179. For
future updates to this rate, travelers may check the Department of
State's Office of Allowances web site (http://aoprals.state.gov).
* Travelers may be accompanied by persons who share a common
dwelling as a family with them.

Remittances. OFAC has also eased restrictions on remittances (including
from inherited blocked accounts) to "close relatives" who are nationals
of Cuba by issuing a general license.

* Persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States may send
remittances to "close relatives" (including, as noted above, aunts,
uncles, cousins, and second cousins) who are nationals of Cuba. These
amendments do not affect the prohibition on remittances to a "prohibited
official of the Government of Cuba" or a "prohibited member of the Cuban
Communist Party," as defined in the CACR.
* There is no limit on the amount of such a remittance.
* There is no limit on the frequency with which persons subject to
the jurisdiction of the United States may send such remittances.
* Authorized family travelers may carry up to $3,000 of such
remittances to Cuba.
* Remittances for emigration-related purposes continue to be
subject to separate restrictions.
* Remittances may be made from depository institutions. To
facilitate this, depository institutions are permitted to set up testing
arrangements and exchange authenticator keys with Cuban financial
institutions.

Telecommunications. Certain telecommunications services, contracts,
related payments, and travel-related transactions are authorized by
general licenses. The CACR amendments ease the telecommunications rules
in three broad areas, as well as allow travel-related transactions for
the specific purpose of conducting business in all three areas.

* Persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction may contract with and pay
non-Cuban telecommunications services providers to provide services to
particular individuals in Cuba (other than prohibited officials of the
Government of Cuba or prohibited members of the Cuban Communist Party,
as defined in the CACR). For example, an individual in the United
States may contract with and pay a U.S. or third-country
telecommunications company to provide cellular telephone service for a
phone owned and used by that individual's friend in Cuba. Moreover, a
U.S. telecommunications services provider may enter into a contract with
a particular individual in Cuba to provide telecommunications services
to that individual.
* Telecommunications services providers that are persons subject to
U.S. jurisdiction are generally licensed (1) to make payments incident
to the provision of telecommunications services between the United
States and Cuba and the provision of satellite radio or satellite
television services to Cuba and (2) to enter into and perform (including
making payments) under roaming services agreements with
telecommunications services providers in Cuba.
* Transactions incident to establishing facilities to provide
telecommunications services linking the United States and Cuba,
including fiber-optic cable and satellite facilities, are authorized by
general license. The Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S.
Department of Commerce licenses the exportation and re-exportation of
goods and technology for the establishment of telecommunications
facilities linking the United States and Cuba.
* Two general licenses have been added authorizing, with certain
conditions, travel-related transactions incident to authorized
telecommunications transactions. One of these licenses authorizes, with
certain conditions, travel transactions incident to the commercial
export of telecommunications-related items that have been authorized by
the Department of Commerce. The second license authorizes travel
transactions incident to participation in telecommunications-related
professional meetings.

New general license for TSRA travel-related transactions. The new
amendments to the CACR also implement provisions of the Omnibus
Appropriations Act, 2009. Pursuant to section 620 of the Omnibus
Appropriations Act, 2009, which amended the Trade Sanctions Reform and
Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA), there is a new general license
for travel-related transactions incident to agricultural and medical
sales under TSRA.

* This new general license authorizes, with certain conditions,
travel-related transactions that are directly incident to the commercial
marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, or servicing in Cuba
of agricultural commodities, medicine, or medical devices that appear
consistent with the Department of Commerce's export or reexport
licensing policy.
* A traveler may rely on this general license if he or she is
regularly employed by a producer or distributor of the agricultural or
medical items or by an entity duly appointed to represent such a
producer or distributor, and if that traveler's schedule of activities
is consistent with a full work schedule.
* Under the new general license, written reports must be submitted
to OFAC at least 14 days before departure for Cuba and within 14 days of
return.

TG-273: Fact Sheet: Treasury Amends Cuban Assets Control
Regulations To Implement the President's Initiative on Family Visits,
Remittances, and Telecommunications (5 September 2009)
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg273.htm