|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| ILL TRADE WINDS | |
 July 11, 1996  |
|
|
|
|
CHARLES KRAUSE: Isolating Fidel Castro has been a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy for nearly 40 years, and shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. In 1960, as tension between the two countries mounted, Castro nationalized the first of nearly 6000 U.S. companies in Cuba, now worth an estimated $6 billion. In retaliation in 1961, the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Castro
and in 1962, But Castro was defiant. He continued to socialize the Cuban economy
and found ways around the U.S. embargo. Early on, the Soviet Union provided
$5 to $6 billion a year in economic subsidies and military Then faced with economic ruin and growing discontent, Castro had no
choice but to open the country to large-scale foreign investment. As
a result, over the past five years, Canadian, Mexican, and Western It's that investment that the Helms-Burton Law seeks to stop. During congressional debate, proponents of the measure argued that the new law was a logical extension of U.S. policy.
CHARLES KRAUSE: But the law's opponents warned that it wouldn't work. SEN. CLAIBORNE PELL, (D) Rhode Island: (March 5) It's naive, in my view, to think that this bill or any sanctions legislation they might pass will succeed in forcing Castro to step aside when all similar actions in the past over many, many years have failed.
The new law penalizes foreign companies that profit from property confiscated from Americans or from Cubans who later emigrated to the U.S. after the Cuban Revolution. These companies can be sued for damages in U.S. courts. Helms-Burton also bans the executives at these foreign companies, as well as their families and shareholders, from entering the United States. Over the past several months, the State Department has notified the executives of some three dozen companies, including a major Canadian mining company called Sherritt International, that they could be banned from entering the U.S. when the Helms-Burton Law takes effect on August 1.
In Ottawa, meanwhile, the government is threatening to enact legislation
that would allow Canadian companies to sue American companies in Canada
to recover any damages awarded by courts against Canadian companies
in the United States. Canada's foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, said
Canada and Mexico are not alone in their opposition to Helms-Burton. LLOYD AXWORTHY, Foreign Minister, Canada: (June 17) Here is an entire international community. The United States is closest to economic partners all saying this is dumb law, let's get rid of it. CHARLES KRAUSE: Indeed, the Organization of American States has also gone on record condemning the Helms-Burton Law as an infringement on sovereignty, while the 15-nation European Union--including Great Britain, France, and Germany--has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization in Geneva. But in Washington this week, Republican Senator Jesse Helms, for whom the legislation was named, accused U.S. trading partners of hypocrisy.
CHARLES KRAUSE: President Clinton could delay implementation of the new law for six months by signing a so-called waiver on or before next Tuesday. The White House has yet to say whether the President will do so. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
        |
|
| Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station. | ||
| ||
| PBS Online Privacy Policy Copyright ©1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved. | ||
| ||
in an effort to destabilize the revolutionary government, President
Kennedy imposed a trade embargo cutting off all imports and exports
between Cuba and the United States.
aid
to Cuba, assistance that continued until the Soviet Union, itself, collapsed
five years ago.
European
companies have invested billions of dollars in Cuba, much of it going
into hotels, utilities, and other businesses once owned by Americans
or by Cubans who now live in the United States.
SEN. PHIL GRAMM, (R) Texas: (March 5) Our position under Democratic
and Republican administrations has always been until the Clinton administration
a commitment to isolation, the isolation of Cuba, and a commitment to
overthrowing Fidel Castro. Today with this bill, we go back to that
policy, and we hit Fidel Castro where it hurts the most. We hit him
in the pocket book.
CHARLES KRAUSE: But after expressing reservations about the bill, President
Clinton signed it in March after the Cuban Air Force shot down two small
civilian planes in international air space off Havana. The planes belonged
to a Cuban exile group called Brothers to the Rescue and outrage among
Cubans in vote-rich Florida, made the bill politically irresistible,
especially in an election year.
The reaction in Canada and elsewhere has been swift and uncompromising.
On a recent trip to Canada, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo met with
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to discuss the implications of
Helms-Burton. Both countries are threatening to file complaints against
the new law under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
SEN. JESSE HELMS, (R) North Carolina: (Tuesday) Instead of helping bring
about real democratic change in Cuba, some of our closest allies are,
in fact, condoning Castro's tyranny and condemning a U.S. role that
was enacted to restore freedom to the Cuban people. The leaders of these
nations pretend that they don't know that Fidel Castro is a murderer
who has no interest in or regard for the well-being of the Cuban people.
They know--they know.