By IPS Correspondents
WASHINGTON, Jun 14 1996 (IPS)

The United States’ leadership role in international affairs and hopes for democratisation in Cuba will be undermined if President Bill Clinton implements the most contentious new sanctions against Havana.

This warning was issued by Harvard University political scientist Jorge Dominguez during a Capitol Hill briefing this week at which he told members of Congress, their staff and other policy analysts that the stiffest provisions of the Helms-Burton Act would produce the opposite effect of that intended by its sponsors.

His admonition comes at a time when staunch U.S. allies are increasing their pressure on Clinton to waive implementation of Helms-Burton provisions that would allow legal action against non- U.S. companies and executives doing business in Cuba.

The controversy centres on a section of the new law — officially known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act — that would allow U.S. owners of property expropriated by Cuba to take action in U.S. courts against third-country nationals “trafficking” in such property.

Formally known as Title III, these controversial provisions, set to take effect Aug. 1, would not only open the way for legal action against non-U.S. companies, but would also prevent company executives and their families from entering the United States.

Critics find Title III particularly egregious because it would allow people to file lawsuits even if they were not U.S. citizens at the time their property was confiscated. That could increase the number of potential court claims by tens of thousands.

“Letting Title III go forward would be highly disruptive to U.S. international relations, to say nothing of tying up U.S. courts,” warned Dominguez, who said the enormous potential for legal action under the bill led him to dub it the “Lawyer Subsidy Act of 1996.”

“It is very clear that for those governments closest to the United State on a great many issues for a long time this is a bad law,” he added.

Earlier in the week, the president of the European Union’s (EU) executive commission, Jacques Santer, publicly lectured Clinton on the damage to U.S.-European relations caused by Washington’s attempts to extend its law to other countries, known as “extraterritoriality.”

Although Santer’s ire was focused on Helms-Burton, he made it clear that the EU is also concerned about pending bills in Congress that would target foreign firms doing business in Libya and Iran, where European companies do far more business than they do in Cuba. The Iran-Libya sanctions bill passed a key Congressional committee Thursday and is expected to land on Clinton’s desk by the end of next week.

Canadian officials, who already have lodged a protest under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), are expected to unveil retaliatory measures against Helms-Burton next week. Among the expected actions will be efforts to clear the way for Canadian firms to countersue against damages awarded in U.S. courts.

In recent years, Canadian companies have been among the most active foreign investors in Cuba. Earlier this month, U.S. officials notified the Toronto-based mining firm Sherritt International, which has a 50-percent stake in a large Cuban nickel operation, that it could be among the first targets under Title III.

Dominguez said U.S. allies have valid complaints, particularly their claim that Helms-Burton violates international free trade agreements. Implementation of Title III, he said, would tell other countries that “the U.S. government doesn’t believe enough in the trade rules that the U.S. government has promoted so effectively for so long.”

Further implementation of Helms-Burton not only threatens U.S. international relations, but it would also be “counterproductive in terms of the goals the legislation seeks (in Cuba),” according to Dominguez, coordinator of the Cuba task force at the Inter- American Dialogue, the Washington-based group that sponsored the congressional briefing.

Clinton’s decision to sign Helms-Burton into law after Cuba shot down two civilian aircraft piloted by a Florida-based anti- Castro group in February for allegedly violating the island’s air space was appropriate, Dominguez said. But, he added, Washington should now show more restraint.

Dominguez argued that if Washington wants to promote democratic and economic liberalisation in Cuba, Clinton should waive implementation of Title III — an option provided by the law — for at least six months. This action, he said, give him “leverage that otherwise the U.S. government would lack” in influencing Cuban behavior.

“There is no need for the U.S. government to shoot all its guns at once,” said Dominguez. The message that Clinton would be sending to Cuba, if he delayed implementation, he added, is “we’re keeping one more large club in the back and we will hit you again if you misbehave.”

Claims that Clinton, who is seeking re-election, would be hurt politically, if he waived Helms-Burton, were dismissed by Dominguez as unfounded. “If the President is thinking purely in terms of votes, there is the possibility that he could gain votes by acting like a statesman and waiving Title III,” he said.

“Not all Cuban Americans cheered the implementation of this act,” Dominguez said, noting that polls conducted in Florida and New Jersey — the two states with the largest number of Cubans — indicate that 25 to 40 percent of Cuban Americas oppose the tough new sanctions.

As for Clinton’s relations with Helms-Burton supporters in the Cuban-American community, Dominguez said, they “never liked him, never trusted him. …These are votes he lost a long time ago.”

Former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers, however, disputed Dominguez’s contention, arguing that the President faces “grave political consequences,” if he fails to implement Title III on schedule in August.

Republicans, led by bill sponsor Sen. Jesse Helms, would be “delighted,” if Clinton waived Title III because it would allow them to “paint him as being pro-Castro,” according to Rogers, who is now a private lawyer in Washington.

“This is the trap that Jesse laid for him,” Rogers said. “If he (waives Title III), he will have his brains beaten out of him by the conservatives.

Dominguez was also criticised for suggesting to Canada, Mexico and other U.S. allies opposed to the law — countries Helms has denounced as “fair-weather friends” — that they delay taking any type of retaliatory action if Clinton decides to waive Title III.

Wayne Smith, former chief of the U.S. Interest Section in Havana, told Dominguez that he was asking these countries to “just to roll over.”

“They have to have some means to defend themselves,” said Smith, arguing that Helm-Burton foes should “press their case” in whatever international fora are appropriate, including the World Trade Organisation.

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