Cuba plans to open investment opportunities to US residents, as Trump puts pressure on the island
The Cuban government is planning to allow Cubans living abroad – including in the United States – to invest in companies on the island, a government official told NBC News in an interview broadcast Monday, as the country faces economic collapse and greater pressure from the Trump administration.
“Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with American companies [and] and Cubans living in the United States and their descendants,” said Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga in an interview with the center.
Fraga said that the new policy will be announced on Monday night.
CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
It marks a significant change in the country, which has had an economy heavily controlled by the state for decades and severely restricts citizens from starting private businesses until 2021.
The policy change comes as Cuba grapples with this power grid collapse again periods of public protest. The Trump administration threatened higher tariffs earlier this year on any country that exports oil to Cuba, suffocating the country’s access to petroleum and leading to fuel shortages.
President Trump and members of his administration have suggested in recent months that the island’s communist regime could fall — after Mr. Trump ordered a US military operation to arrest the leader of Venezuela, another dissident Latin American country.
Mr. Trump told reporters late Sunday that the U.S. and Cuban governments are talking. Calling Cuba a “failed nation,” the president said Cuba “wants to make a deal, and I think very soon we will make a deal or do whatever we have to do.” He also said that “something will happen with Cuba soon,” although he said he wants to deal with a war with Iran first.
Last month, the US president said that “Cuba” may be “taken with friendship”.
Asked on Monday about his plans for Cuba, the president said: “Even if I release it, take it, I think I can do whatever I want with it, [if] you want to know the truth.”
It is not yet clear how much foreign investment could be attracted to the island. Cuba is under strict US sanctions that make it difficult for Americans to invest in Cuba or do business with the country without US government approval, among other things. The US State Department also prohibits direct financial transactions with a number of companies it deems related to the Cuban military or intelligence services.
Fraga said the US restrictions on trade with Cuba are “undoubtedly a factor affecting the development of these reforms.”
Andy Gomez, professor of Cuban studies at the University of Miami, he told CBS Miami that the risks for foreign investors in Cuba may outweigh the benefits.
“Investing in Cuba and being sure that you will be able, in companies, to be able to keep most of your income, that is not clear,” he said.
