SLP, Mexico – This Friday, the Cuban regime announced that following the implementation of Resolution 56 of 2024 from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, which prohibits wholesale trade for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), these businesses will need to change their corporate purpose.
According to the official press, the Ministry of Economy and Planning will begin a process to “modify” the corporate purpose of MSMEs that have wholesale trade approved as their primary activity and express their intention to continue conducting it.
Businesses must communicate this decision via the email address [email protected]and they will have a 90-day deadline to comply.
Otherwise, according to the regulation, if an email indicating the intention to continue wholesale trade (now to be conducted through state-controlled enterprises) is not received, it will be understood that the approved trade activity is retail, and their wholesale licenses will be cancelled.
“The rest of the Mipymes and non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA, by its Spanish acronym) that have trade as a secondary activity and wish to modify their corporate purpose to comply with the mandate of Decree 107 of 2024 and the aforementioned Resolution must process the change as usual through the Economic Actors Platform,” reads a statement from the state-run Cubadebate.
A resolution published on December 5 requires Mipymes to conduct wholesale trade solely through government mediation.
The text automatically revokes “licenses for wholesale activities granted to private micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, as well as non-agricultural cooperatives, which had this activity approved as a secondary purpose in their corporate charter.”
With the presumed objective of “organizing” wholesale and retail trade for Mipymes, the regulation stipulates that businesses whose primary purpose is production may only engage in wholesale trade of their own products.
Furthermore, they must do so strictly through contracts with state entities or via state-owned wholesale trading companies.
Mipymes and self-employed workers will be allowed to conduct retail sales as long as this is approved in their corporate purpose or project and they hold the appropriate commercial license.
On the other hand, Mipymes whose secondary activity is wholesale trade will have their licenses automatically canceled by the Central Commercial Registry, thereby prohibiting them from engaging in this activity. Similarly, self-employed workers operating in this sector will also lose their registration.
Almost all Mipymes, except for state-owned ones and a single private company (G&G Wholesalers SURLapproved in March 2023), have been affected by the regulation.
In Cuba, 8,623 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises have been approved. Around 8,000 Mipymes, non-agricultural cooperatives (CNAs), and self-employed workers (TCP, by its Spanish acronym) had been granted commercial licenses with wholesale trade as a secondary activity since August 2022. However, as early as September 2021, wholesale trade appeared as the primary activity for at least one state-owned Mipyme (SERVOLEM), which was among the first 35 companies approved at that time; back then, no company listed wholesale trade as a secondary activity.
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