• Home
ES / EN
- December 8, 2019 -
No Result
View All Result
32 °c
Miami
27 ° Fri
27 ° Sat
27 ° Sun
27 ° Mon
OnCubaNews
Print Edition
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
OnCubaNews
ES / EN
Home Cuba-USA

Trump and Cuban-American property claims

If President Trump does not renew the suspension of Title III, all these old wounds with allies will be reopened as U.S. claimants try to haul foreign companies into U.S. courts for doing business in Cuba.

Dunia Cruz Triana by Dunia Cruz Triana
February 13, 2019
in Cuba-USA
0
https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba-usa/what-would-happen-if-the-u-s-applies-title-iii-of-the-helms-burton-act/

https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba-usa/what-would-happen-if-the-u-s-applies-title-iii-of-the-helms-burton-act/

The Trump administration is seriously considering whether to allow Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (Helms-Burton) to go into effect in March, according to National Security Adviser John Bolton.  

On January 16, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was suspending Title III for just 45 days instead of the usual six months while the administration reviews whether its implementation would promote democracy in Cuba. He warned foreign companies doing business on the island that they had better “reconsider whether they are trafficking in confiscated property and abetting this dictatorship.”

Title III allows U.S. nationals to file suit in U.S. courts against anyone “trafficking” in their confiscated property in Cuba—that is, anyone profiting from it.

If President Trump allows Title III to go fully into effect, he will open the door to as many as 200,0000 law suits by U.S. nationals, most of them Cuban-Americans, whose property was taken by the Cuban government after 1959.

U.S. courts would be swamped, the ability of U.S. companies to do business on the island would be crippled, and allies abroad might retaliate for U.S. suits brought against their companies in Cuba.

Once the suits have been filed, there will be no way to undo the resulting legal chaos and the tangle of resulting litigation could take years to unwind.

What would happen if the U.S. applies Title III of the Helms-Burton Act?

The U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission has certified 5,913 claims of U.S. nationals whose property was seized. These are the claims that Cuba recognizes and that the United States and Cuba had begun to discuss during the Obama administration. But Title III takes the unusual position of allowing naturalized Cuban-Americans who lost property to also file suit against alleged traffickers.

Normally, international law recognizes the sovereign right of governments to dispose of the property of their own citizens. According to the Department of State, by including Cuban-Americans who were not U.S. citizens when their property was taken, Title III creates the potential for an estimated 75,000-200,000 claims worth “tens of billions of dollars.”

Back in 1996, when the law was being debated in Congress, angry opposition from U.S. allies Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, whose companies doing business in Cuba would be the targets of Title III law suits, led President Bill Clinton to insist on a presidential waiver provision in Title III.

As a result, the president has the authority to suspend for six months the right to file Title III law suits, and he can renew that suspension indefinitely. Every six months since the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act was passed, successive presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, have continued the suspension of Title III.

U.S. allies have denounced Title III’s extraterritorial reach. Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union all passed laws prohibiting compliance with it. The European Union also filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, which it did not pursue after President Clinton suspended Title III. In fact, the principal justification both President Clinton and President George W. Bush offered for continuing the suspension was the need to maintain cooperation with European allies.  

If President Trump does not renew the suspension, all these old wounds with allies will be reopened as U.S. claimants try to haul foreign companies into U.S. courts for doing business in Cuba.

He already has enough tough issues on the agenda with Mexico, Canada, and Europe without adding another one. At this very moment, Washington is trying to muster their support in dealing with the Venezuelan crisis, support that could be endangered if the administration picks a fight with them over Title III.

U.S. businesses would not be exempt from potential liability. A Cuban-American family in Miami claims to have owned the land on which José Martí International Airport was built, so any U.S. carrier using the airfield could conceivably be sued under Title III. Another family that owned the Port of Santiago could file suit against U.S. cruise ships docking there.

Moreover, it would be almost impossible for a U.S. or foreign company to know in advance whether a proposed business opportunity in Cuba might become the subject of Title III litigation. “This will effectively end for decades any attempt to restore trade between the U.S. and Cuba,” attorney Robert Muse told the Tampa Bay Times.

When President Trump announced new sanctions on Cuba back in June 2017, senior administration officials said they were designed “to not disrupt existing business” that U.S. companies were doing in Cuba. If the president fails to continue the suspension of Title III, business relations will be disrupted far more severely and irreparably than they would be by any regulatory change.

 

_______________________

 

William M. LeoGrande is Professor of Government at American University in Washington, DC, and co-author with Peter Kornbluh of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).

 

Tags: cuba-us relationsCuba-USA RelationsInternational PoliticsTitle III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity
Previous Post

Tornado in Havana: number of hospitalized decreases

Next Post

Excess paperwork delays recovery of tornado victims in Havana

Dunia Cruz Triana

Dunia Cruz Triana

Related Posts

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking at the University of Louisville, Ky., on Monday, December 2, 2019. Photo: Timothy D. Easley / AP.
Cuba-USA

U.S. accuses Cuba of “hijacking” protests in Latin America and applies more sanctions

December 5, 2019
Photo: © Copyright The New School
Cuba-USA

Immersion in Cuba through The New School

December 4, 2019
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez gives statements to the press about the impact of the U.S. embargo/blockade on Cuba, at the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Havana, on September 20, 2019. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.
Cuba-USA

Cuban Foreign Minister denounces “illegal actions” of U.S. Embassy

November 28, 2019
The U.S. government continues to apply sanctions to Cuban state companies for their relations with Venezuela. Photo: Radio Rebelde / Archive.
Cuba-USA

U.S. sanctions Cuban company for operating with Venezuela

November 28, 2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a NATO meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. Photo: EFE / EPA / OLIVIER HOSLET
Cuba-USA

Mike Pompeo defends U.S. diplomats in Havana

November 24, 2019
View of the Miami-Dade Commission. Photo: Miami-dade.gov
Cuba-USA

Miami-Dade councilors vote against family reunification for Cubans

November 22, 2019
José Daniel Ferrer and the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Cuba, Mara Tekach. Photo: Twitter.
Cuba-USA

Cuban government accuses U.S. chargé d’affaires of illegal actions in Cuba

November 21, 2019
The ICE correction center in Cibola County, New Mexico, where the Cubans are isolated. Photo: ICE
Cuba-USA

More Cubans detained by immigration in U.S. on hunger strike

November 21, 2019
Next Post
Store with construction materials for victims of the January 27 tornado in Havana, located in the courtyard of the Alfredo Miguel Aguayo School in the Havana municipality of 10 de Octubre. Photo: Modesto Gutiérrez / ACN.

Excess paperwork delays recovery of tornado victims in Havana

Photo: Alejandro Ramírez Anderson

Roberto Fonseca: “I respect all those who struggle to create”

The group of migrants could exceed a thousand people. Photo: Video from Telemundo 51.

Hundreds of Cubans stranded in Panama’s border area

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The conversation here is moderated according to OnCuba News discussion guidelines. Please read the Comment Policy before joining the discussion.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ADVERTISEMENT

Most Read

ETECSA launches new mobile internet offer in Cuba

December 5, 2019
Cuban pesos (CUP) and convertible pesos (CUC). Photo: EFE / Archive.

New experiment in Cuban stores: is the CUC disappearing?

December 3, 2019
The Cuban government and the European Union held in Havana the 2nd Political Dialogue on the Imposition of Unilateral Coercive Measures, amid growing U.S. economic pressures on the island. Photo: EFE / Yander Zamora.

Cuba and EU address in Havana escalation of U.S. embargo

December 1, 2019
Convertible Cuban peso (CUC) coins and bills. Photo: viajejet.com

Cuban government prohibits import of convertible pesos (CUC)

October 26, 2019

Most Commented

No Content Available
  • About us
  • Work with OnCuba
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Moderation policy for comments
  • Contact us
  • Advertisement offers

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!