US, Cuba to Resume Mail Service
Talks in June 2013 were headed by Lea Emerson, director of international postal matters for the U.S. Postal Service
The United States and Cuba should be able to transform their new diplomatic relationship into a deeper commercial partnership before the end of the year, with direct postal service to begin and an agreement on regularly scheduled commercial flights between the two countries, an American official said.
Washington and Havana are slated to begin a “pilot program” allowing Cubans and Americans to send mail directly to one another, the official said. The governments have been speaking about re-establishing a postal link since Obama entered office, but the talks stalled when Cuba imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross. Direct mail service was halted in 1963, though letters and packages travel back and forth through countries like Canada and Mexico.
The postal program will use the Miami and Havana airports, the official said
Source: US, Cuba to Resume Mail Service This Year; Other Steps Near
Mail service between the United States and Cuba was cancelled in 1963 as Washington tightened economic sanctions on Havana. Letters and packages now go through third countries such as Mexico, Canada or Panama.
The United States is the destination of one out of every four packages and letters mailed from Cuba, according to official Havana figures, while mail and packages sent from the United States account for 42 percent of the total received on the island.
Talks on reopening the postal service took place in 2009 in Havana, but the Obama administration cancelled the contacts after U.S. government contractor Alan P. Gross was sentenced to 15 years in a Havana prison for delivering sophisticated communications equipment to Cuba’s tiny Jewish community. Talks in June 2013 were headed by Lea Emerson, director of international postal matters for the U.S. Postal Service, and José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, head of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington.
Source: Miami Herald
If imports are legalized the Priority Mail shipments of Cuban Cigars will greatly drop the price of the bootlegged ones already in the country.
So, finally after so long the service between USA and Cuba will soon be revived. This is indeed great news as there is lot of traffic between the two nations and such decision would lead to better commercial relations between the two.
one commie organization to another!
It makes much sense. They already have more than a few daily passengers flights between Miami and Havana,Cuba.