Theprovince.com.
Canada. July 17, 2001.
WASHINGTON (CP) - President George W. Bush said Monday he intends to suspend
for another six months a law that would let Americans sue people using U.S.
property confiscated in Cuba after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. In Ottawa,
International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew welcomed the move, saying Canada
has always opposed the U.S. law, which was passed in 1996 but has never been
implemented.
"We remain quite opposed to its application," Pettigrew said. "It's
not the way to deal with international situations."
Pettigrew said he has been given no indication that Bush would continue to
waive application of the law, called the Helms-Burton law.
"We've won another battle but we've not won the war," he said.
A provision in the Helms-Burton law gives the president authority to waive
or enforce its application at six-month intervals.
Asked at a picture-taking session whether he intended to issue the waiver,
Bush said: "I do," but did not elaborate. The deadline for him to act
is Tuesday.
Then-president Bill Clinton established the pattern of exercising waiver
authority in 1996 when the law was approved.
Bush's decision suspends for six more months the Title III provision in the
law that allows any American whose property was seized in Cuba after Castro took
power in 1959 to sue anyone who uses the property.
Letting that provision take effect would have angered Canada and other U.S.
allies whose citizens and companies could face lawsuits.
The law is seen as a particular threat to Canadian companies - Cuba is
Canada's largest trading partner in Caribbean, with strong ties in tourism,
mining and agriculture. Two-way trade totalled $739 million in 2000.
Canada is also Cuba's largest source of direct foreign investment, with $610
million committed.
About two dozen Canadian import-export companies are registered as having
offices in Cuba.
Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, former chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an author of the law, had been sharply
critical of Clinton's past use of the waivers.
Bush announced his decision in advance of a trip to Europe later this week.
Analysts were watching to see if Bush would signal any change in the U.S.
stance toward Cuba.
The State Department lists 5,911 U.S. firms and citizens whose property was
nationalized without compensation by the Cuban government, mostly in the 1960s.
© The Canadian Press, 2001 | 
