The Cuban regime published on Monday the Official Gazette No. 83 Ordinary of 2026, which formalizes the authorization for individuals to import goods for commercial purposes and establishes that the corresponding tariffs and taxes must be paid in U.S. dollars.
The three published regulations — from the Council of State, from the Ministry of Finance and Prices, and from the General Customs of the Republic— will come into effect on October 12, 2026, seven days after their publication.
The mechanism does not establish a full commercial import regime for private citizens; rather, it allows that, when customs detects that an import exceeds the non-commercial limits or has a commercial nature, the traveler can choose to formalize it —instead of losing the merchandise to confiscation— by paying the corresponding tariffs in foreign currency.
The text of Decree-Law 132 itself clarifies that this modality "does not constitute an activity of foreign trade," but rather a way to regularize situations that previously ended in confiscation.
The customs duties for commercial imports made by travelers are progressive: 15% on the first $2,000; 20% on the amount between $2,000 and $4,000; 25% from $4,000 to $6,000; and 30% on any amount that exceeds $6,000. For goods arriving through shipments, the rate is a fixed 30%.
Payment should be made with international cards or national cards in dollars. Cash will only be accepted at designated entities for that purpose in airports.
Resolution 340/2026, signed by the head of the General Customs, Nelson Enrique Cordovés Reyes, also establishes detailed rules for determining when an import qualifies as commercial, including reference value lists by categories: household appliances, information technology, construction materials, tools, and others. For mobile phones, for example, up to five units are allowed as non-commercial imports; for household appliances of the same type, up to two.
This regulation is the regulatory implementation of a measure that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced in June before the National Assembly as part of a package of 176 economic and social transformations, framed within Axis 15, which is focused on foreign trade.
In practice, thousands of Cubans operate as "mules"—travelers who transport goods from abroad for informal sale on the island—a activity that was carried out in a legal grey area and was pursued by Customs through seizures. The new regulations offer them a path to regularization, although at a foreign currency cost that many will find difficult to bear.
The economist Elías Amor warned in September that this set of measures, along with Decree 160/2026 which prohibits wholesale trade for individual self-employed workers, aims to displace the "mulas" from the import business to concentrate it within small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperatives with greater state control.
At the end of September, the Cuban government announced that it had implemented 158 out of the 176 measures announced —89% of the package— supported by 197 legal norms. Monday's publication represents the final regulatory pieces of one of the most anticipated transformations by those supplying the Cuban informal market.
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