The measure is renewed because food and commodity shortages “persist”
14ymedio /EFE, Havana, September 20, 2025 — The Cuban government extended for another four months, until January 31, the duty exemption on food, medicines, toiletries and power generators that enter the country without commercial purposes, the official press reported this Saturday. The regulation had already been extended once this year, in April.
According to the Gaceta Oficial, “limitations in the supply of food and other goods in the country persist.” This initially led to exemption from customs duties on basic necessities. However, the text blames the “hardening of the economic, financial and commercial blockade and the impact on the economic sphere of the measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic for the gradual recovery of the country.”
The customs value limit of $200 to $500 is maintained for imports made by people through shipments
The regulation entered into force in 2021 and has since been postponed several times. It maintains the limit of the Customs value from 200 to 500 US dollars for imports made by people through shipments. As for those brought to the Island by travelers themselves, the authorities state that the articles must be presented to customs by natural persons in packages separated from personal baggage in order to receive the tariff benefit.
According to an official press report published at the beginning of the year, in 2024 there were 118 violations by “people who use these benefits for profit and not to satisfy personal and family consumption,” a warning that Customs released again this Friday. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, the figure was already 104 violations, and the confiscation of 8,978 kilograms of medications, food and toiletries .
The importation of food and medication without tariff limits was a measure adopted following the Island-wide anti-government protests of July 11, 2021 (’11J’), which had among its main causes the shortage of basic products and the prolonged electricity cuts.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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