Smoke Signals

When Jimmy Carter allowed the ban on American travel to Cuba to lapse last March, no one was happier than cigar aficionados. They had been deprived -- legally, at least -- of the pleasures of Cuban stogies since 1962, when the embargo on trade with Fidel Castro's island was imposed. A smoker is now free to ask a Cuba-bound traveler: "Hey, going to Havana? Pick me up a couple of boxes of Montecristos." But lately many Americans returning to the U.S. from points outside Cuba laden with Havana's best have been rudely awakened by customs inspectors to the fact that their purchases are still taboo.

The explanation is simple: as a courtesy to travelers to Cuba, the U.S. has lowered the embargo a tiny notch. Tourists may bring back up to $100 worth of merchandise, but otherwise, all Cuban goods are contraband in the U.S. Aha, a traveler might wonder: a plot to protect U.S. cigar makers? Probably not. "Cuban tobacco would be a stimulus to American cigars," insists Carl J. Carlson, executive director of the Cigar Association of America. Since the embargo began, total cigar sales in the U.S. have receded from more than 6 billion a year to just 5.3 billion in 1976. A return of the Cuban smokes, cigarmen reckon, might inspire a whole new generation to sample the legendary product, then to buy American cigars as well -- especially since they cost about 12-c- on the average, while their Cuban cousins often go for more than a dollar. What is more, before 1962 some 95% of the Cuban cigars sold in the U.S. were rolled and wrapped in American plants, and that pattern would probably resume.

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