Cuba's private sector might be growing but government restrictions are generating millions in profits for other countries, according to a report in the Miami Herald.
"Current laws and regulations and policies adopted by the government of the Republic of Cuba suggest a preference to enrich other countries rather than authorize a critical component required to develop and sustain a private sector — the availability of an import/export wholesale marketplace from which self-employed may purchase products," president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council John Kavulich wrote in an email to the Herald.
Kavulich pointed to Panama's relaxed visa restrictions, allowing Cubans to come shop there, potentially generating $3 million in profit on travel and tourism.
"A successful private sector represents a pathway to inequality," Kavulich told the Herald. "The self-employed, the small business, the private sector, consist of owners and those who work for the owners. Some earn more than others. Some want to earn more than others.
"The government of the Republic of Cuba has struggled with defining success and to what level an individual may be successful."
Cubans often are forced to buy goods overseas because of the government's monopoly on trade. More than 48,000 Cubans made an average of 11.5 trips off the island in 2017, the Havana Consulting Group estimated.
More than $2 billion might be leaving Cuba annually, according to the report.
Cuba "is not taking advantage . . . of the large amount of hard currency that these businesspeople generate, compared to the drought of hard currency faced by state companies and the central government administration, which has forced the government to drastically reduce the purchase of raw materials abroad and led to its failure to pay many providers," Havana Consulting Group's President Emilio Morales wrote in a report, per the Herald.