BIS, OFAC Fact Sheet Offers Licensing Guidance for Telecom Exports to Cuba

The Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a fact sheet this week highlighting the various exemptions and authorizations available for companies, people and exporters providing telecommunications goods and services to Cuba. The five-page guidance covers OFAC general licenses and BIS license exceptions and comes as the Biden administration tries to increase sanctions pressure on the Cuban government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in recent weeks (see 2107300063).

The Commerce Department said the fact sheet “outlines the steps exporters may take to seek additional clarification regarding license exceptions” and request individual licenses. “BIS will work with civil society organizations and the private sector to provide Internet access to the Cuban people that circumvents the regime’s censorship efforts,” said Matt Borman, BIS’s acting assistant secretary for export administration. OFAC added it has a “favorable licensing posture” toward license requests involving the provision of internet service to the Cuban people. “The Department of the Treasury will continue to support the human rights of Cuban people,” OFAC Director Andrea Gacki said.

Although President Joe Biden hasn’t yet made significant changes to U.S.-Cuba policy, his administration had been reconsidering some sanctions against the island before the Cuban government’s recent suppression of protests (see 2106110028). Biden also said he has no immediate plans to reverse Trump-era restrictions on sending remittances to the island (see 2107160013).

OFAC said it “encourages” providers of internet-based services to Cuba to use authorizations under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, which allows the provision of “certain services incident to the exchange of communications over the internet and services related to the exportation and reexportation of certain communications-related items.” Exporters of communications-related hardware and telecommunication equipment can also use BIS’s License Exception Consumer Communications Device, License Exception Support for the Cuban People, or an individual license from BIS. Exporters also can send certain items that aren’t subject to the Export Administration Regulations.

Other OFAC licenses and regulations authorize the “establishment of telecommunications facilities” that “link” the U.S. to Cuba, an “in-country presence” for internet and telecommunications providers, internet-based distance learning and certain informational materials. OFAC said it will consider other specific license requests case by case but will prioritize applications, compliance questions and other requests involving “internet freedom” in Cuba. BIS said it has a “general policy of approval” for license applications related to telecommunications and internet-related items intended to “improve communications to, from, and among the Cuban people.”