15 July 1997
AllPolitics
Barry Schweid, AP Diplomatic Writer

Clinton May Waive Cuba Sanctions

WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton is likely to block tough penalties for doing business with Cuba for another six months, administration officials said Tuesday.

Taking a halfway measure on the political sensitive issue, Clinton for the third time would grant Americans a right to sue foreigners for using confiscated property in Cuba, but impose a six-month waiver on any litigation.

Three administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a presidential decision was imminent.

Even America's closest allies are opposed to U.S. efforts to mete out punishment for trading with Cuba. In April, France and Cuba signed a trade agreement despite a longtime U.S. embargo of the communist island nation.

The agreement provided investment guarantees, repatriation of profits, arbitration procedures and guarantees against nationalizations.

However, the European Union's envoy to the United States informed Congress recently there were no plans to revive a challenge to the U.S. law that punishes those doing business with Cuba.

In turn, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., warned that America won't back down on a dispute over allowing third-country companies to use Americans' property seized by Fidel Castro's government.

In April, the European Union suspended its complaint before the World Trade Organization over the 1996 Helms-Burton Act's provisions to punish foreign companies investing in property confiscated from Americans after Castro's takeover in 1959. The EU has until Oct. 15 to revive the complaint.

Trying to balance international concerns with the ardent anti-Castro views of political significant voters in Florida and elsewhere, Clinton last year began a series of six-month actions that both granted a right to sue but preventing legal action at the same time.

In January, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Clinton of letting Cuba off the hook by temporarily barring legal action against certain foreign investments on the island.

European officials argued that the concept of lawsuits should be dropped altogether. Europeans and Latin Americans have complained bitterly about the lawsuit provision, contending that it was an attempt by the United States to extend its jurisdiction beyond the United States.

Britain, which backs the United States more than any of the allies, is opposed hotly to U.S. interference in trade with Cuba. And so is Canada.

Cuba has called the measure "meddling and extraterritorial."

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