US forges ahead to allow Cuba lawsuits, defying EU warnings

The administration of President Donald Trump on Wednesday forged ahead with a long-delayed law that allows lawsuits in US courts over property seized by Cuba, defying warnings from the European Union and vowing to issue no exemptions.

Fueling fears on the island over its economic future, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the measure -- passed by the US Congress in 1996 but until now delayed systematically by each president every six months -- will go into effect on May 2.

"Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement," Pompeo told reporters.

Under the provision of the Helms-Burton Act, any companies that operate in property seized by Cuba during or after Fidel Castro's 1959 communist revolution could face lawsuits in US courts from the vast and politically powerful Cuban American diaspora.

"Those doing business in Cuba should fully investigate whether they are connected to property stolen in service of a failed communist experiment," Pompeo said.

"I encourage our friends and allies alike to follow our lead and stand with the Cuban people," he said.

But the European Union and Canada, whose vigorous protests helped block the Helms-Burton Act from coming into force two decades ago, swiftly condemned the move.

"The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law," the EU's foreign affairs supremo Federica Mogherini and Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in a statement that was also signed by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

In a letter to Pompeo ahead of the announcement that was seen by AFP, Mogherini and Malmstrom warned that the European Union "will be obliged to use all means at its disposal" to protect its interests if the law comes into force.

They also warned of action at the World Trade Organization, a key reason why presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all blocked the lawsuit provision from coming into force.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the decision on Twitter as "an attack against International Law and the sovereignty of #Cuba & third States."