BusinessWeek

As President Barack Obama seeks to ease tensions with Cuba, he risks a standoff with Congress over Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo on the island. While the White House on Apr. 13 made some travel easier and said U.S. telecom companies may invest in Cuba, Obama could do much more if he wants. The notion that the embargo makes trade with Cuba impossible "is a fallacy," says Jake Colvin, an analyst at the National Foreign Trade Council, a lobbying group for U.S. exporters. In fact, the President can authorize nearly any U.S. company to operate in Cuba.

Obama, of course, would face strong opposition from conservatives and some Cuban Americans if he loosens trade too much without reciprocal steps from Havana. Yet Cuba buys a lot of American goods already: $710 million in grain, fruit, poultry, and other products last year. And it would likely buy far more if it could. "An opening with the U.S. fits into Castro's economic calculus," says Julia E. Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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