Feds block Cuba trip by World Trade Center Palm Beach
The U.S. Treasury Department has blocked an effort by World Trade Center Palm Beach to send a South Florida trade mission to Cuba, according to reports in Bloomberg News and the Miami Herald.
World Trade Center Palm Beach, a nonprofit organization affiliated with World Trade Center groups in the U.S. and around the world, had said in December it was organizing a trip to Cuba with about 30 professionals from South Florida. The trip was being organized in conjunction with the World Trade Center Havana.
WTC Palm Beach president Louis Haddad told the Miami Herald Wednesday that he had just been notified of the decision in a letter from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Haddad said the letter did not specify exactly why the required federal permits were being denied, other than saying the application did not meet all the required criteria.
The Palm Beach organization said in December it wanted to organize a trip to establish possible trade links and to promote South Florida trade and industry in Cuba.
Feds block Cuba trip by World Trade Center Palm Beach