A waiting game for companies hoping to do business in Cuba

The Obama administration has taken steps that allow companies in the travel and telecommunications industries to work with Cuba, but most exports and other business contacts remain prohibited under an embargo Congress passed in 1960 in response to Communist rule in Cuba.

Because of the embargo, the U.S. exported only $180 million in goods to Cuba last year, most of it agricultural products and medicine.

Only Congress can lift the embargo, and it's not known when that might happen — some lawmakers are against ending it because of charges of human rights violations by the Castro government.

"There is an unbelievable appetite for travel," says Geronemus, whose company is based in New York.

Because of the embargo, Geronemus works with a Cuba-based company, HavanaTur, and an intermediary company in Europe to handle reservations, itineraries and payments.

Maria Contreras-Sweet, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, found during a recent visit to Cuba that officials and business leaders are interested in building a relationship with U.S. companies, but they also want Americans to understand that Cuba, which doesn't have a free market, has a different culture and a different way of doing business.

In recent years, Cuba has started allowing people like small restaurant owners, real estate agents, house painters and home builders to work independently of the government.