Senate Bill Would Set Guardrails for Removing Cuba Sanctions
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently introduced a bill that would prevent the president and State Department from removing sanctions against Cuba until it certifies the country is respecting human rights and meeting other requirements. The Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends Act, announced by Rubio in a news release last week along with two other Cuba-related bills, would require the U.S. to keep Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism unless it certifies that Cuba has established an independent judiciary, respects free speech, has released political prisoners and has met other requirements under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The bill also would require the State Department to identify and sanction entities with ties to the Cuban military, security or intelligence services, including by blocking any “electronic remittances” with those entities. The legislation also said the Treasury Department “should expand and tighten sanctions programs” to “penalize tax havens for entities used by sanctioned countries,” such as the Cuban military’s use of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.