Mr. de Cossio At MINREX In Cuba Not Quite Accurate With His Comments About Biden-Harris Administration Efforts With MSMEs And Remittances

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Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cuba (MINREX), shared this week the following statements which were then and remain now contrary to previous statements from officials of the government of the Republic of Cuba relating to authorizing micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to receive direct foreign investment and direct foreign financing from United States-based sources which the Biden-Harris Administration (2021) first authorized on 10 May 2022.   

If the government of the Republic of Cuba is supportive, then why nearing an eight-month delay for the issuance of regulations so that unilateral decisions by the Biden-Harris Administration may begin to deliver value to MSMEs?  

  • “If this [unilateral decisions by the Biden-Harris Administration] allows greater prosperity of any sector of the economy, we will not put up obstacles. If they manage to devise exceptions that benefit some and continue to punish others, we will not try to prevent it either.” 

  • On Biden-Harris Administration decisions since 20 January 2022: “it has not had perceptible changes” to the overall United States-Republic of Cuba bilateral relationship. 

  • About Biden-Harris Administration decisions reported “with much fanfare” he saw none. 

  • “There is still no regular flow of remittances... and if it happens in the near future, it is due to steps that Cuba has taken and not to decisions taken by the United States.” 

For the last statement, Mr. de Cossío is partially correct noting the Biden-Harris Administration has yet to authorize direct correspondent banking.  To be factual, the Obama-Biden Administration (2009-2017) authorized in 2015 United States-based financial institutions to have correspondent accounts with Republic of Cuba government-operated financial institutions.  However, without explanation- and there continues to be no rationale provided by the Biden-Harris Administration, the 2015 decision by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury did not authorize Republic of Cuba government-operated financial institutions to have correspondent accounts with United States-based financial institutions.  The lack of direct correspondent banking means that funds (particularly commercially-related: those supporting MSMEs, and United States agricultural commodity and food product exports) from the United States to the Republic of Cuba and funds from the Republic of Cuba to the United States must navigate through financial institutions located in third countries- thus a triangle rather than a straight line.  Result is more time, more cost, and less transparency.   

Where Mr. de Cossío is not accurate- the government of the Republic of Cuba could have provided alternative Republic of Cuba government-operated financial institutions when the Trump-Pence Administration (2017-2021) in October 2020 included one in the Cuba Restricted List (CRL) maintained by the United States Department of State.  Remittance forwarders, financial institutions, and companies in the United States asked repeatedly the government of the Republic of Cuba to permit other Republic of Cuba government-operated financial institutions to receive and send remittances.  Those requests were denied by the government of the Republic of Cuba.  Only in February 2022 did the government of the Republic of Cuba authorize another Republic of Cuba government-operated financial institution to process remittances.  The delay was self-inflicted.