New Trump Rules Pare Back Obama's Opening to Cuba -- Update

The Trump administration on Wednesday continued its bid to pare back former President Barack Obama's campaign to normalize ties with Cuba, announcing regulations tightening travel and financial transactions by Americans.

President Donald Trump said in June he would be moving to reverse Mr. Obama's stance of relaxing a decades-old U.S. embargo against the Castro regime, in keeping with Mr. Trump's campaign-trail pledges to Cuban Americans.

The changes being detailed Wednesday are mainly connected to the ability of individuals to travel to the island while also curtailing some business interactions, though leaving much of Mr. Obama's shift in place.

Under rules that will come Wednesday from the Treasury Department and the State Department, many Americans who want to visit Cuba will have to do so by traveling through operators who are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and be accompanied by a representative of a sponsoring organization that is also subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

A summary of the rules circulated early Wednesday by the Treasury Department indicated that individual travel would no longer be authorized, except in cases where a flight or accommodation had been booked before June.

The administration also said it would be posting a list of entities and subentries connected with the Cuban military, with whom Americans would be forbidden from engaging in some financial transactions. Commercial transactions arranged before mid-June could be allowed to continue, the administration said.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com and Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 08, 2017 09:49 ET (14:49 GMT)