It has been almost 56 years since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s State Department imposed the first trade embargo on Cuba on Oct. 19, 1960. The original embargo covered all U.S. exports to Cuba except for medicine and some foods. President John F. Kennedy expanded the embargo to cover U.S. imports from Cuba and made it permanent on Feb. 7, 1962. In the first year of Castro’s regime, U.S. trade with Cuba decreased by 20%. At that time Cuba bought 70% of its foreign goods from the U.S. The United States embargo against Cuba was a commercial, economic, and financial embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba. In March 2016 the Obama administration restored diplomatic ties with Cuba and lifted the embargo.