美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Expected To Restrict Trade, Travel With Cuba

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

President Trump 1 is preparing to announce changes in U.S. policy towards Cuba, possibly tightening 3 restrictions 4 on travel and trade that were loosened under former President Obama. President Trump is expected to announce the changes in Miami on Friday. A congressional source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed Trump's decision to NPR's Geoff Bennett. He joins us now from the capital. And, Geoff, the president is expected, as we said, to announce a reversal of several policies, the first of which is American travel to Cuba. What more have you learned?

GEOFF BENNETT, BYLINE 5: Well, I'm told President Trump will tighten 2 the categories under which Americans are authorized 6 to travel to Cuba. There are 12 such categories. The most popular is the one allowing educational trips, the so-called people-to-people exchanges. The rules for those were really liberalized or, you know, loosened under President Obama to the point now where people essentially 7 self-certify that they have a good reason to be in Cuba.

So the White House in changing the rule could require that people have documentation for their intended trips. People might have to get a permit before they go. There are a few ways within the existing law for the White House to sort of step up the enforcement. We understand that in the planning stages of this the White House considered and could still be considering limiting all travel to Cuba by Americans to one visit per year. That's including Cuban-Americans, Audie.

CORNISH: So that's travel. What about trade? What are the White House plans there?

BENNETT: Well, the White House wants to restrict U.S. businesses from dealing 8 with companies owned by the Cuban military. And this is an aspect of the policy reversal that is complicated in terms of its application and really enforcement because as it stands, it's pretty difficult - nearly impossible, really - for a company to know if a company in Cuba that it's dealing with has, you know, zero benefit to the Cuban military. And so supporters of sort of U.S.-Cuba engagement, at least the ones I talked to today, see this as a de facto way of blocking a larger swath of trade between the two countries even more than people, you know, even realize.

CORNISH: What have you learned about how the president arrived at this policy decision?

BENNETT: Well, the White House has been formally reviewing its Cuba policy for quite a while now. But Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Florida Congressman 10 Mario Diaz-Balart have been advising the White House and the National Security Council on these policy changes. Rubio, you'll remember, has been opposed to normalizing relations with Cuba from the very start, back when President Obama introduced the very notion of it. But, you know, they stand in contrast to lawmakers from rural agricultural states who are eager to sell goods and grain to Cuba.

And then last month, some 55 U.S. senators, led by senators Jeff Flake 11, the Republican from Arizona, and Patrick Leahy, the Democrat 12 from Vermont, they reintroduced a bill to eliminate the current restrictions on traveling to Cuba for tourism purposes. So there's that political dimension to this, too. I should say my colleague Scott Horsley, who covers the White House, he's been reporting this story. And he talked with a guy named James Williams. He's president of an advocacy group called Engage Cuba. And Williams makes the point that Trump's decision to roll back the Obama-era policies regarding Cuba just really isn't all that popular.

JAMES WILLIAMS: It's rare in Washington to find an issue where Republicans, Democrats 13 and independents all broadly support it. We have a new poll that we just released today that shows that two-thirds of Republican voters don't want him to do this. And the support is even higher among independents and Democrats. So the question is, who are we doing this for?

BENNETT: And to quickly answer that rhetorical question, the president is doing it for southern Florida voters. He's giving this speech in Miami, home to a large and politically influential 14 Cuban-American community. And older Cuban-American voters who largely oppose normalizing relations with Cuba are a reliable Republican voting bloc 9.

CORNISH: NPR's Geoff Bennett on Capitol Hill. Geoff, thanks so much.

BENNETT: You're welcome.