Cuban cigars among goods travelers get OK to import

Cigar-loving travelers won't have to hide their Cubans in their luggage anymore.

Tobacco products from Cuba are among the goods allowed under new trade normalization rules that President Obama announced Wednesday.

The eased restrictions mean that approved travelers will be able to bring home $100 of cigars. (Not a cigar smoker? You can bring back Cuban rum instead.)

The president's official act may take some of the fun out of Cuban cigars. For decades, U.S. travelers have made like amateur smugglers, stashing boxes and bundles of Cohibas and Uppmans purchased overseas, in the United Kingdom or Mexico, for instance, in their luggage, hoping Customs wouldn't find them.

Americans have not been legally able to buy or consume Cuban cigars under laws that have been in place since the Kennedy administration. Ironically, two decades into the embargo, then-President Fidel Castro, for health reasons, quit smoking cigars.

That $100 limit could keep the price of Cuban cigars from rising globally. "I don't know that we'll see much of a change — especially early on," says Anthony Welsch of CigarsCity.com, an online cigar seller based in Knoxville, Tenn.

Prices could rise dramatically if this small step leads to full trade normalization and commercial import of Cuban cigars. In that case, "the demand for cigars from Americans will rapidly outstrip supply, and as a result, prices would likely increase," said Mitchell Orchant, managing director for C.Gars in London.

Under the order, tourists will probably be able to bring in a similar-sized personal allotment of Cuban cigars from countries other than Cuba, says Susan Ross, an international trade partner in the Los Angeles office of law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp. "It's logical, but we need to see the exact language of the executive order," she said.

The rules were announced after the United States and Cuba exchanged prisoners Wednesday.

Among other moves to normalize trade, the United States will let telecommunication providers do business in Cuba. Travelers will find it easier to make trips to Cuba on more commercial flights from the USA. Allowable travel includes family visits, professional meetings and trips involving "support for the Cuban people."

Reaction to the move on social media ranged from jubilation about being able to bring cigars in — and the possible lifting of the full embargo — to concerns about engaging with the Cuban political regime.

Cuban cigars have been held up as the holy grail for cigar smokers, for good reason, because the country is ideal for cigar production, just as Napa Valley has the terroir for vineyards. "The unique combination of 'sun, soil and skill' indeed define the Cuban cigar as the finest made anywhere in the world," Orchant said.

The fact that they were illegal made Cuban cigars "the forbidden fruit," Cigar Aficionado editor and publisher Marvin Shanken said in a statement. "The cigar business was born in Cuba, and cigars made in Havana have a worldwide reputation for excellence. We yearn for the day when our readers can have the opportunity to legally buy and enjoy cigars from every country."

But the ability to legally bring in Cuban cigars could remove "all the mystery and joy" of sneaking them in, says Paul Garmirian, co-owner of the McLean Cigar Boutique in McLean, Va., and president of cigar production company PG.

Beyond that, Cuban cigars are not necessarily the world standard anymore, he says. "The character of the Cuban cigar has changed as the result of great pressures to meet the demand," Garmirian said. "The quality of cigars from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua has gone so high that people don't miss (Cubans)."