EU to continue attack on Helms-Burton law

Date: 17/10/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

THE EU is marshalling its forces for a second attempt to get the US to submit to judgement in an international forum on its Helms-Burton law.

At a meeting of the World Trade Organisation's dispute panel yesterday (16 October), the US rejected the Union's request for arbitration on the legality of the legislation.

But the Union continues to insist that the US has no right to extend its laws beyond its own territory and will ask again for arbitration, probably at the panel's next meeting on 20 November.

At that point, the US will not be allowed to refuse. Under WTO rules, the defending country may refuse to accept arbitration, but it may do so only once. The complainant may then ask a second time, at which point a panel is automatically established.

“It is an important test case because there is world-wide concern that any country can use its trade policy to impose its foreign policy on others,” said a spokesman for Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan.

EU foreign ministers decided to fight back against the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US at their meeting on 1 October, and the Commission notified the WTO on 4 October that the Union would request a panel.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said that judging the case in Geneva could help avoid a nasty escalation of the transatlantic disagreement.

“In the past, this kind of dispute may have been resolved in an ad hoc way, with potentially unsettling consequences,” he said.

It is unclear how long the dispute panel will take to reach a conclusion, but Rockwell insisted that politics would not influence its decision.

“It is a legal case and it will be judged on the merits as argued by both sides,” he continued.

Until the WTO delivers a final ruling, the Helms-Burton legislation - which allows American citizens to sue foreign companies or people who 'traffic' in property seized from them by Cuban leader Fidel Castro when he nationalised assets in 1959 - is unlikely to be removed from the statute books in Washington.

A Clinton adviser said yesterday that there was not enough domestic political pressure in the US to make Congress or the administration alter or dismantle the controversial law.

“I do not think there is any reason to expect the president to go back on the decision,” he said. “It is going to take a lot more world outrage.”