In an ef­fort to fend off a mount­ing hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis, Cu­ba on Wednes­day eased up on long­time re­stric­tions on pri­vate ven­dors and im­ports, open­ing up a sec­tor firm­ly con­trolled by the Com­mu­nist-led gov­ern­ment.

The re­forms would al­low for the im­port and re­sale of some goods and med­i­cines from oth­er coun­tries, loosen re­stric­tions on oil ex­trac­tion for for­eign com­pa­nies and im­ple­ment oth­er changes at a time when the coun­try is plagued by med­ical and en­er­gy short­ages.

While pri­vate en­ter­prise has slow­ly opened in re­cent years, many sales on the coun­try’s in­for­mal mar­ket have long ex­ist­ed in a grey area — not tech­ni­cal­ly le­gal but wide­ly used by Cubans strug­gling to sur­vive the day-to-day hard­ships.