Word: burtons
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...uproar? Isn't it business as usual for countries to enforce their views on the world, and doesn't the U.S. regularly throw its superpower weight around? Yes, Washington often berates other countries, promises benefits or denies privileges to get its way. But the Helms-Burton law, which permits Cuban Americans to go to court in the U.S. to sue foreign companies "trafficking" in their property seized by the Castro regime, and Iran-Libya sanctions, which bar U.S. financing and export rights to foreign firms making new investments in Libyan or Iranian oil and gas, are something different. They threaten...
Europeans, Canadians and Mexicans blame a lot of the new posture on American election-year politicking. The President opposed both bills when they first popped up in Congress on the grounds that they would cause exactly the difficulties in foreign affairs they are now causing. Helms-Burton began to sound better only in February, after the Cuban air force shot down two private planes flown by an exile group based in Miami and Clinton came under heavy domestic pressure to respond militarily. He apparently decided that signing a flawed sanctions bill was better than doing nothing--and definitely better than...
...America's friends a far more serious principle--their sovereignty--is involved, and they are not going to roll over. In Washington the European Union delivered a formal protest to the State Department. In Brussels the European Commission proposed making it illegal for companies to comply with Helms-Burton and easing the way for firms to countersue in European courts. The commission is preparing a blacklist of U.S. companies and citizens that file suits against European firms, and threatens to refuse them visas. The E.U. insists that both U.S. actions are against international law and is challenging them...
...allies are determined to act if necessary. But they don't want to leap into battle if the threat is going to blow away after the November elections. European officials have taken in the fact that Clinton has suspended much of the effect of Helms-Burton until next year and promises to waive or apply the D'Amato provisions on a careful, case-by-case basis. "Clinton wants to show he is doing something concrete," says a French diplomat. "We are hearing that things may change by the end of November." Even so, declares French spokesman Doutriaux, "what we want...
...Monday that will punish non-U.S. companies investing in Libya and Iran, nations the U.S. accuses of sponsoring terror. The Europeans' first response, now underway, is drafting legislation that would make it illegal for European companies to comply with either the anti-terror law or the Helm-Burton Act, which provides similar U.S. sanctions against businesses dealing with Cuba. From there, the EU is also considering limiting the visas of U.S. business executives -->