HAVANA. Cuba, May 6 (acn) Two months after Washington announced new regulations allowing Cubans and their banks to use dollars for their transactions, the island has not yet been able to carry out any such operation with the US currency.
The statement was made by a high-ranking Cuban foreign affairs official cited by Cubadebate website who commented on the regulations by the US Treasury and Commerce departments, which went into effect on March 16. "We have not been able to do any banking operations yet," said the official.
Shortly before the visit here by President Barack Obama in late March, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that the Cuban government would lift the 10 percent tax imposed on US cash dollars entering the country, but this would only happen when the island corroborated that Washington no longer chased Cuban financial transactions in US dollars.
The persecution by Washington of third-country banks has led to fines as high as over 10 billion dollars in the past three years, while Cuban banks are banned from having branches in the US. Meanwhile, US sanctions continue to take place despite the announcement by the administration.
On April 20, a court case in Europe took place against Pay Pal leading to the freezing of the bank account of a client from Luxemburg who made a transaction to buy a ticket for a theater play which bore the word CUBA on it, due to the US sanctions on the island.
In March, US foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes told Cuban media that the decision to allow Cuba to use US dollars has not been enough, since the banks still fear possible sanctions. The long-time sanctions has led the US banks to program their computers to reject any transactions with Cuba, Rhodes said and added they would have a talk with them about the policy change.
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