THE President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, - has managed to include in the G7 Summit conclusions an implicit criticism of American legislation imposing sanctions on companies which trade with Cuba.
The Helms Burton Bill allows individual US citizens to sue non-US companies which trade with Cuba, and gives the power to refuse access to the US for businesspeople working for such companies.
European and Canadian governments object strongly to the US seeking to penalise non US companies for trading with Cuba, and to suggestions that these penalties might be extended to companies trading with Libya and Iraq. "We do not think it is acceptable for any government legislation to have extra territorial effect," the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Jean Chretien, said yesterday.
The summit conclusions state a commitment to "avoiding taking trade and investment measures that would be in contradiction with WTO [World Trade Organisation] rules and OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] codes".
The Helms Burton law is not specifically mentioned but, according to Mr Santer, "this is exactly the spirit in which I stated the difficulties which are created for the European Union, as for other G-7 partners, by the Helms Burton legislation.
"We raised this issue in an amicable but firm way, asking the American president to do his utmost to ensure that this matter does not sour our otherwise excellent transatlantic relations."
Mr Chretien said he had told President Clinton that it was better for states to act in a multilateral rather than unilateral way. "I gave the example of the results achieved in South Africa, where there was a large consensus in the world to act collectively."
Privately, European and Canadian officials accepted that it he wanted to change the legislation, Mr Clinton would have difficulty doing so in the present Republican controlled Congress.