Clinton Acts To Avoid Upsetting Major Allies Indefinitely Suspends Section Of Law Aimed At Cuban Economy
President Clinton on Friday suspended indefinitely the most controversial provision of a 1996 law aimed at tightening the economic screws on Cuban President Fidel Castro, a move that defused a nasty spat with major U.S. allies at little apparent political cost.
In a statement issued here and at his vacation resort in the Virgin Islands, the president announced he was suspending a section of the Helms-Burton act that would allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign corporations whose investments in Cuba involved the use of property seized by the communists without compensation.
The president said he was acting because of “real progress” in building an international consensus for a tougher policy on Cuba. Now that the European Union and allies in Latin American have abandoned parts of their long-held policy of tolerance toward the Castro regime, Clinton senior aides said, it is better to work in concert with them than to alienate them by allowing such legal claims.
In announcing the decision, Clinton and senior aides claimed a major diplomatic victory for the administration.
They said a U.S. initiative to enlist support for a tougher stance on reform in Cuba had paid off in actions by allies who traditionally stayed out of Cuban domestic affairs.
The most important piece of evidence for the existence of what Clinton called “the strengthened international consensus for change in Cuba” is a policy adopted by the European Union last month conditioning all future economic and political relations with Castro on domestic reforms in Cuba.
The Helms-Burton law allows suspensions of the lawsuits provisions for six months at a time.
Clinton, however, said, “I would expect to continue suspending the right to file suit so long as America’s friends and allies continue their stepped-up efforts to promote a transition to democracy in Cuba.”
Hugo Paemen, the European Union’s ambassador in Washington, called Clinton’s waiver “a step in the right direction,” but he said it does not resolve Europe’s unhappiness with the “extraterritorial reach of the law itself.
“We note that today’s decision does not guard against a potential future application” of the measure, he said. xxxx BOOST FOR CANADA Canadian companies in particular have invested heavily in Cuban tourism and other industries.