Improvements in US-Cuban Relations Bring Business Opportunities and Challenges by Geoffrey M. Goodale and Louis K. Rothberg Cuba old map with Havana insert plan. Created by Vuillemin and Erhard, published on Le Tour du Monde, Paris, 1860. © shutterstock.com As soon as President Obama announced that the United States would pursue improved relations with Cuba on December 17, 2014, many US companies and law fi rms began to wonder what it would be like to do business with or in Cuba. While certain new opportunities have been created by amendments made to Cuban-related regulations administered by the US Department of Treasury’s Offi ce of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the US Department of Commerce’s Business of Industry and Security (BIS), many of the comprehensive sanctions imposed against Cuba by the US for decades remain in effect, and will continue unless Congress takes action. Statutory Restrictions Limit Business Opportunities with Cuba We must recognize that several US statutes currently in effect constrain the ability of the president – acting alone without Congress – to further substantially ease or lift many of the existing sanctions against Cuba. These stat-utes include: (1) the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992; (2) the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996; and 12 VIRGINIA LAWYER | February 2016 | Vol. 64 | GENERAL INTEREST FEATURES (3) the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 (CDA), among other things, prohibits foreign subsidiaries of US companies from engaging in trade with Cuba. 1 The CDA also prohibits entry into the US for any seagoing vessel to load or unload general freight if it has been in-volved in trade with Cuba within the previous 180 days. 2 www.vsb.org