In April Cuban government officials announced plans to move about 40 percent of the country’s output to the nonstate sector in five years. This followed a move two years ago to lay off employees in state owned enterprises and encourage them to become entrepreneurs, operating their own businesses. Over 250,000 Cubans took advantage of this opportunity, starting small businesses. Now the government is announcing high tariffs on incoming goods, just the kinds of goods needed by these new entrepreneurs to keep their small businesses alive. This could be a serious threat to the move toward growing a healthy private sector in Cuba.
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