After 50 hours of negotiations, on April 11 the US and the European Union reached a tentative agreement on the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, known as "Helms- Burton".
The EU is suspending until October 15 a complaint it brought with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the US law, which attempts to extend the 35-year-old US embargo against Cuba to other countries.
Europe's complaint was to go before the WTO on April 14. The US was planning to boycott the proceedings, a major embarrassment for US President Bill Clinton, who vigorously promoted the creation of the world trade body two years ago.
In return for the postponement, the White House will apparently try to get Congress to give the president more flexibility in applying the law's punitive measures against foreign individuals and companies that trade with Cuba.
The EU and the US will have until October 15 to work out a mutually acceptable plan "to promote a transition to democracy and the protection of property rights in Cuba", according to US under secretary of commerce Stuart Eizenstat, who has been in charge of defending Helms-Burton to other governments. The negotiators are to work on "disciplines and principles" to keep European companies from investing in property confiscated without compensation.
The new feature of the plan is that Cuba would not be the only target. Eizenstat told reporters that the plan might also cover other countries, including Nicaragua. Russia and eastern European countries might be exempted in order not to deter foreign investment there, Eizenstat added.
On April 1, the US arrested Spanish business person Javier Ferreiro in Miami and charged him with selling US-made products in Cuba in violation of US embargo laws.
Although the charges are apparently under laws that were on the books before Helms-Burton, the tensions over Helms-Burton have made the case a cause célèbre in Spain. Former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, now head of the social democratic Socialist Party, has accused the government of his right-wing successor, Jose Maria Aznar, of failing to defend Ferreiro against "human rights violations" by the US.
[From 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY, 10012, USA; email wnu@igc.apc.org.]