Thanks for a substantive post. Yes, Obama could very well send foreign aid to Cuba. But that is a different issue.
My questions in post above are strictly about trading embargo with Cuba. I have seen no benefits or good results after 50 years of trying. The Castro’s are as entrenched as ever. Cubans are no better off than 50 years ago. And American business people can not sell in Cuba.
Foreign trade is what opened up China to the world. Why not Cuba?
The point is that the Cuban embargo was more or less symbolic, since nobody else did it and Cuba has had lots of European and other trade and tourism for decades now. Of course, the Europeans usually go to visit the underage girl prostitutes, but that’s par for the course in a Communist country. European businesses used to give away “Cuban sex tours” as incentives for their top salesmen.
In the case of other embargoes, such as that of South Africa under apartheid, many states ceased trading with the country, thanks to US and UN pressure, and the embargo was a genuine hardship. But Cuba’s hardship comes from its lack of a functional economy, lack of production, reliance on foreign gifts, etc., and has nothing to do with the embargo.
Sorry, you are misinformed. United States is the number one trader on food and medicine with Cuba including being the biggest on free donations. Thanks to the embargo, Cuba has to pay on advance for the goods Castro buys in U.S. Cuba trades freely with more than 140 nations worldwide, but they stopped selling to Cuba on credit because Cuba defaulted in all their commercial debts. Cuba’s international credit is the lowest in world, on par with Somalia. By ending the embargo Obama force the taxpayers to pay for the goods American business will sell to Castro when Cuba, as usual, defaults in its debts.