US, Cuba to resume mail service, agreement on commercial flights

US, Cuba to resume mail service, agreement on commercial flights
The US and Cuba should be able to transform their new diplomatic
relationship into a deeper commercial partnership before the end of the
year, with direct postal service to begin.
By Bradley Klapper, Associated Press SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

WASHINGTON — The United States and Cuba should be able to transform
their new diplomatic relationship into a deeper commercial partnership
before the end of the year, with direct postal service to begin and an
agreement on regularly scheduled commercial flights between the two
countries, an American official said.

Washington also plans to publish new regulations soon making it easier
for U.S. citizens to visit the island and do business with its growing
ranks of independent entrepreneurs.

The official, who is familiar with the diplomacy, described significant
progress in U.S.-Cuban discussions since the former Cold War foes
reopened embassies in their respective countries in July. At a meeting
in Havana last week, delegations from each side established a plan to
settle a half-century of economic and legal disputes within the next 15
months.

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While difficult questions related to human rights and compensation
claims won't be resolved immediately, the official said first steps
toward a broader normalization of ties would come quickly.

First, the Obama administration intends to move on its own in the coming
days by releasing a new set of rules designed to loosen the U.S.
economic embargo on Cuba, said the official, who wasn't authorized to
publicly lay out the process and demanded anonymity.

The goal is to pick up where President Obama left off in January, when
he eased economic restrictions on Cuba in potentially the most dramatic
manner since relations between the countries broke down after Fidel
Castro's revolution in 1959 and the subsequent Bay of Pigs invasion and
Cuban missile crisis. The action sought to cut red tape for U.S. travel
to Cuba, permit American companies to export telephones, computers and
Internet technology, and allow U.S. firms to send supplies to private
Cuban enterprises.

But efforts to expand business, tourism and other exchanges have run
into an overlapping thicket of U.S. laws and hindrances, not to mention
an uneven response from Cuba's political leaders, the U.S. official said.

Many U.S. travelers still need to go on supervised group trips. Routine
airline service hasn't satisfied various federal conditions. Cruise
ships and ferries are still trying to finalize regular maritime routes
with Cuban authorities. Credit card and other companies still can't
transfer payments to Cuba. Telecommunications companies haven't been
able to set up shop and get equipment to the island 90 miles south of
Florida. And Cuba's government isn't even running its Internet
connections anywhere near capacity levels.

The new U.S. rules should help cut through some of these bureaucratic
hurdles, the official said, though he declined to describe all the legal
changes in concrete terms. Only Congress can end the embargo, and much
of the foreseen expansion of U.S.-Cuban economic ties rests on the
cooperation of the island's communist government.

The U.S.-Cuban political track moved ahead Thursday as new ambassador
Jose Ramon Cabanas Rodriguez presented his credentials to Obama at a
White House ceremony. The pair briefly spoke, according to a Cuban
embassy statement.

When Obama laid out his vision of improved relations eight months ago,
he said his objectives were twofold: ease economic hardship in Cuba and
spur its development of a private market outside of state control.

Some breakthroughs can be expected by the end of the year, according to
the official.

Washington and Havana are slated to begin a "pilot program" allowing
Cubans and Americans to send mail directly to one another, the official
said. The governments have been speaking about re-establishing a postal
link since Obama entered office, but the talks stalled when Cuba
imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross. Direct mail service was halted in
1963, though letters and packages travel back and forth through
countries like Canada and Mexico.

The postal program will use the Miami and Havana airports, the official
said.

Also, the U.S. and Cuba should finalize an agreement on resuming direct,
commercial airline routes, though the first flights wouldn't come until
next year. Right now, American and Cuban travelers must fly on charter
flights that are complicated to book, rarely involving an online portal
and often forcing a prospective traveler to email documents and payment
information back and forth with an agent. Those flying sometimes must
arrive at the airport four hours in advance; strict baggage limits apply.

The official outlined a few other achievable goals before the end year:
Counternarcotic cooperation that goes beyond Coast Guard interdiction
efforts to include Drug Enforcement Agency partnering with its Cuban
counterpart; joint environmental work involving the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration; progress on setting up maritime passenger
routes.

U.S. and Cuban officials hope to tackle their biggest differences by
December 2016, before Obama leaves office, the official said.

The U.S. says Cuba must make significant democratic reforms, allowing
greater space for opposition political voices and civil society
movements. The fate of U.S. and Cuban fugitives beyond the reach of law
enforcement authorities at home remains an outstanding issue. And each
side has billions of dollars in compensation claims against the other,
perhaps the biggest hindrance to the resumption of any "normal,"
U.S.-Cuban relationship.

Source: US, Cuba to resume mail service, agreement on commercial flights
- CSMonitor.com -
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/0917/US-Cuba-to-resume-mail-service-agreement-on-commercial-flights