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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MARCH/APRIL 2015
With the Cuban mystique on the verge of being demystified, cigar players weigh
in on the prospect of freely selling Cuban stogies in the U.S. after 50-plus years.
T
he way former White
House Press Secretary
Pierre Salinger used to
tell it, about a month before the
Bay of Pigs Invasion, President
Kennedy summoned him on
urgent business: “I need you to
get me 1,000 cigars...by tomorrow
morning!”
The next morning, after
exhausting his retail resources,
Salinger was called into the Oval
Office once again by the president.
“How’d you do?”
“I was able to get 1,200,”
Salinger stated.
“Fantastic,”
replied
the
president, who then, according
to Salinger, opened up his
desk drawer, pulled out the decree
banning all Cuban products from
the U.S. and signed it.
Since that fateful day in 1961,
Cuban cigars (along with most
Cuban products) have been
banned from the U.S. But is a
five-decade Cuban embargo about
to be lifted? And what will that
mean to the U.S. cigar industry?
President Obama has called on
Congress to begin work on ending
the embargo this year. During his
January 2015 State of the Union
address, President Obama stated,
“In Cuba, we are ending a policy
that was long past its expiration
date. When what you’re doing
doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time
to try something new. Our shift
in Cuba policy has the potential
to end a legacy of mistrust in our
hemisphere...removes a phony
Unforbidden Fruit?
By Renée M. Covino