In a major shift, the United States President Donald Trump administration will, for the first, allow legal lawsuits in American courts against those international firms using properties confiscated by Cuba since Fidel Castro’s revolution around six decades ago, according to a senior US official.
According to Reuters news reports, this major policy shift could expose the European, Canadian and US firms to a legal challenge and a blow to Cuban efforts to attract more foreign investors. Also, it a sign of Washington’s effort to punish Cuba for backing embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
On Wednesday, White House national security advisor John Bolton will deliver a speech in Miami announcing the administration’s decision as well as sanctions over Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaguara, nations he branded with “troika of tyranny”, the official said on Tuesday.
However, it is unclear about how many cases will the US court accept. The European Union (EU) has already warned the US of a legal challenge in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In Havana, EU envoy to Cuba Alberto Navarro said: “The extraterritorial application of the U.S. embargo is illegal, contrary to international law and I also consider it immoral.”
In January, Trump had threatened to allow the law, which has been suspended since 1996, which permits American-Cuban and other American citizens to sue international firms doing business in Cuba over those properties that has been seized by the Cuban government in decades.
Every president had fully waived Title III of the Helms-Burton Act over the past 23 years because of rebuff from the international community as well as fears that it could further create chaos in the US court with lots of lawsuits.