The United States and Cuba are taking baby steps toward each other. Since President Obama called for a ``new beginning,'' his administration has allowed unlimited family travel and remittances, resumed migration talks, proposed direct-mail service and given its blessing to the concert by Colombian pop star Juanes. In the past 10 months, the State Department issued 5,500 more visas for Cubans to visit the United States than in the same period before October 2008.

When news leaked that Bisa Williams, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, had traveled to Cuba, eyebrows were raised. Over six days, she met with Cuban officials on direct-mail service, toured an agricultural cooperative, lunched with five dissidents, hosted a reception at the U.S. Interests Section and took in the Juanes concert.

On Sept. 29, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez told the U.N. General Assembly that not much had changed between Cuba and the United States since Obama's inauguration. ``The economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba remains intact,'' said Rodríguez. True, but it takes two to tango. Cuba's Foreign Ministry -- seat of a first-rate diplomatic corps -- should review its files from the 1970s when Havana and Washington established a dialogue on a doable, not maximalist, agenda.

The White House, in turn, should look back to the late 1990s when President Bill Clinton's administration reclaimed his foreign-policy prerogatives and crafted a flexible Cuba policy. The Helms-Burton Act seemingly codified the embargo, but it also codified the Office of Foreign Assets Control's rule-making powers regarding Cuba.

Thus, after Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba, Clinton restored charter flights, family travel and remittances. The administration had to do an inevitable balancing act: mollifying U.S. allies on Helms-Burton; announcing new democracy grants mandated by Helms-Burton; giving Cuban airliners en route to and from Canada the right to overfly the United States; and arresting the Wasp Network of Cuban spies in South Florida.

Pushing the envelope

In January 1999, the White House truly pushed the envelope by:

• Authorizing direct flights between cities other than Miami and Havana.

• Allowing remittances to independent organizations and individuals unaffiliated with the government or the Communist Party.

• Expanding licensed travel to Cuba for academics, artists, scientists, journalists and increasing visas for Cubans to visit the United States.

• Allowing the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban national team to play ball.

• Authorizing the licensed sale of food and agricultural products to NGOs and private individuals in Cuba.

Clinton's decision to license the sale of food and agricultural products harbored the greatest potential for change in bilateral relations since the 1970s. It gave renewed impetus to the anti-embargo movement. Market forces had, moreover, created a potentially powerful constituency for a change. Amid the agricultural glut and depressed prices of the late 1990s, U.S. farming interests turned their hungry eyes on the Cuban market.

In October 2000, Clinton signed the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancements Act, which authorized the sale of agricultural commodities while barring Havana from U.S. public or private credits. TSRA also codified the travel ban -- that is, all OFAC Cuba-related travel regulations.

Clinton set a precedent that mobilized agricultural trade and soft power to pry Cuba open. His administration started down a path of limited engagement. At first, George W. Bush stayed the course but then did a U-turn in 2003 until the end of his presidency.

The White House cannot lift the embargo nor end the travel ban. The president nonetheless retains broad authority to license trade, Cuban imports, limited investments and most travel except tourism.

Policymaking less risky

Today, making Cuba policy is much less mined than it was under Clinton. Cuban Miami has become more diverse. More time has passed under the embargo without Cubans being any closer to freedom. Cuba policy is bipartisan, for and against the embargo.

Obama can do more than meets the Helms-Burton eye. Yet, I'm not surprised that the tempo is slow. Sure, he's got a lot on his plate, but even if that weren't so, 50 years of mistrust can't be bridged quickly. I say so far so good, but I hope a lot more eyebrows -- here and there -- are raised.

Marifeli Perez-Stable is a professor at Florida International University and Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C.

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