WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Friday its new cap on remittances to Cuba would not apply to those to support the fledging private sector, in what will likely be welcome news for the Communist-run country's new raft of entrepreneurs.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton had in April announced a new cap on U.S. remittances to Cuba of $1,000 per person per quarter, as part of a broader tightening of the decades-old embargo on the island nation.
The announcement dismayed Cuban entrepreneurs who have used money sent by U.S. relatives to set up and run restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts and a variety of other businesses in recent years as Havana opened up the state-run economy.
The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had on Friday amended its regulations to place a "cap of 1,000 U.S. dollars per quarter that one remitter can send per quarter to one Cuban national."
It said it was also eliminating the authorization for donative remittances.
However it was adding a provision authorizing remittances to certain individuals and independent nongovernmental organizations in Cuba that would "support the operation of economic activity in the non-state sector".
This was due to the administration's "policy to encourage the growth of the Cuban private sector independent of government control", it said.
"Through these regulatory amendments, Treasury is denying Cuba access to hard currency, and we are curbing the Cuban government’s bad behavior while continuing to support the long-suffering people of Cuba," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.