6/25/2019

CHINA/CUBA/SANCTIONS/TECHNOLOGY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. sanctions on Cuba are deterring American firms from exploring its telecommunications sector even as Washington seeks to expand internet access on the Communist-run island, according to the final report of a U.S. government task force released on Tuesday [6-25-29]. Chinese companies dominate Cuba’s telecoms sector, a status quo ‘worth challenging given concerns that the Cuban government potentially obtains its censorship equipment from Chinese Internet infrastructure providers,’ the report said. Cuba’s government protested the U.S. State Department’s creation of a Cuba Internet Task Force last year as ‘foreign interference.’ It remains unclear how open it would be to U.S. investment in the strategic telecoms sector…U.S. presidents have successively tightened and loosened the decades-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba imposed in the years after its 1959 revolution. Former President Barack Obama created a loophole for U.S. telecommunications companies to provide certain services to Cuba.”

-Sarah Marsh, “U.S. sanctions put telecoms firms off Cuba, internet task force says,” Reuters, June 25, 2019 4:55 pm