News & Insights

Washington, DC – In a letter to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the National Foreign Trade Council today registered its strong opposition to new regulations designed to further restrict travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba.

The proposed amendments to 31 C.F.R. Part 515 will eliminate many people-to-people educational exchanges to Cuba, eliminating the entire category of licensed travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba for educational activities that do not involve study directly pursuant to undergraduate or graduate degree programs.  Limiting travel to Cuba to only those enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate degree course at the accredited U.S. academic institution, the amendments neglect an entire segment of parties interested in traveling to Cuba to strengthen understanding between the two countries.

“We oppose these changes because they eliminate important cultural and educational exchanges between the American and Cuban people,” said NFTC President Bill Reinsch.  “As a result, direct contact between U.S. and Cuban citizens will be severely limited, further isolating the Cuban people and threatening prospects for democratic reform.”

NFTC noted in its letter that some of the United States’ most prestigious cultural institutions are currently licensed to conduct 515.565 educational programs in Cuba – all of which stand to be eliminated if the proposed OFAC regulations are adopted – including: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of the City New York, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Folk Museum, Princeton University Art Museum, The Rhode Island School of Design, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In addition, the new regulations would deny licenses to companies that specialize in organizing foreign educational travel programs designed to export American values and institutions.  These companies include the Ambassador Group, founded in the Eisenhower Administration to promote people-to-people programs abroad. 

“The members of these cultural institutions include Americans who are most likely to present a favorable view of our country to Cubans,” Reinsch concluded.  “The NFTC strongly urges the Administration to reinstate the people-to-people category and allow the free flow of ideas to be exchanged by our most valuable ambassadors of freedom, American citizens.”

The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves 350 member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.