Obama warm on Cuba but don't light the cigar just yet

Americans will be able to take home up to US$100 of Cuban cigars. Photo / Bloomberg

Dreaming of carrying armloads of cigars out of Cuba now that the US is thawing relations? Not so fast.

At least initially, American visitors who treasure the scarce luxury smoke won't be able to bring back home more than US$100 ($129) of Cubans for personal use. Not everyone will be allowed to travel to the Caribbean island either. Plain old tourism is still banned.

President Barack Obama intends to resume diplomatic relations with Cuba, open an embassy in Havana and loosen travel and trade restrictions. It's a big deal. Even Coke, peddled in remote areas of the globe, can't sell its drinks in Cuba.

Telling the real Cuban from the fake won't be easy. Counterfeit versions are everywhere.

"Most people are not getting what they think are Cuban cigars," said Roland Boone, tobacconist for the Buckhead Cigar Club in Atlanta.

"Many are made in Mexico, with a facsimile of a band that appears like a Cuban band."

A real box of Cohiba Behikes, usually containing 10 cigars, can go for as high as US$1000 in the US, according to a 2011 story by Cigar Aficionado magazine.

Right now, the US bans all Cuban tobacco imports.

Anyone caught faces a possible US$250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. Corporations face fines of as high as US$1 million.

Cuban cigars purchased in other countries still won't be permitted into the US when the regulations are revised in the coming weeks, the Treasury Department said.

Black market opportunists will have to hunt for new business models as prices inevitably fall.

By then, aficionados in Wall Street may have moved on. Imagine buying the same stogie that Joe from Minnesota is puffing while watching the Vikings.

- Bloomberg