The transatlantic rift over extraterritorial enforcement of U.S. laws and sanctions widened Thursday after the EU pledged to shield firms from newly authorized lawsuits in the United States for doing business on expropriated American property in Cuba. Since 1996, when then-President Bill Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act into law, U.S. officials have suspended a provision that allows U.S. nationals who fled Cuba on or after Jan. 1, 1959, near the end of the five-year civil war that brought Fidel Castro to power, to make claims against firms now "trafficking" in properties seized from them by Cuba's communist government. The White...
The High Representative of the European Union issued a declaration expressing disagreement with the United States' decision to fully activate the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1995, which has resulted in the extra-territorial application of sanctions against Cuba.
Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland underlined support for Canadian businesses operating in Cuba in light of the decision by the United States not to suspend Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which is aimed at preventing foreign countries from engaging in trade with Cuba.
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