As President Barack Obama moves to ease restrictions on trade with Cuba, cigar lovers in the United States are savoring the prospect of legally lighting up a smoke that has long required a black- market connection and a willingness to flout the law. 

The lift on the embargo could very well have an adverse effect on the cigar industry in Canada. When demand decreases and there is already a veritable supply, especially following an economic recession and the imposition of smoking legislation banning cigar and cigarette use from restaurants, bars and many other once popular havens for afficiandos, the prospective futures of economic growth in the cigar industry in Canada may be harsher than one imagines.Bloomberg has reported that the possible end to the near half-century old embargo on Cuba trade also has intensified a legal and lobbying dispute between cigar makers Swedish Match AB of Stockholm and Imperial Tobacco Group  of Bristol, England. Each seeks exclusive rights to sell Cuban-made brands in the U.S., ultimately the world’s strongest market for cigars. Swedish Match sells cigars in the U.S. made in Honduras and the Dominican Republic under Cuban brand names. Imperial distributes Cuban- made cigars under many of the same names to the rest of the world through an agreement with the Cuban government monopoly, Cubatabaco.

“Before serious commerce resumes, this is going to have to be resolved,” said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who advises clients on Cuba-related issues.

As Bloomberg goes on to state, the fate of the Cuban trade embargo is more than an idle topic for discussion among the lobbyists, lawyers and politicians who frequent Shelly’s Back Room in Washington. Regulars at the cigar parlor located between the White House and the Capitol share the dream of getting their hands on a legal Cuban cigar.

“Cuban cigars are legendary,” said owner Bob Materazzi. “Anybody who is a cigar geek is interested.”

Certainly the prospect of cuban cigars in the United States are a cause for raised eyebrows both enthusiastically domestically and cautiously both abroad within the corporate sector and to the north.