CNN - Mexico bucks U.S. pressure to drop Cuba trade

Mexico bucks U.S. pressure to drop Cuba trade

May 29, 1996
Web posted at: 3:20 p.m. EDT (1920 GMT)

From Bureau Chief Lucia Newman

MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- Mexico is one of the world's top three investors in Cuba, with interest in everything from Cuban tourist resorts to telephones.

So it isn't surprising that Mexico is incensed by word that Washington is about to give Mexican companies an ultimatum: Get out of Cuba in 45 days, or face U.S. sanctions. Preliminary warning letters were expected to go out to a handful of Mexican, Canadian and Italian companies Wednesday.

The action is being taken as the first formal implementation of the recently passed Helms-Burton Law, which seeks to put economic pressure on Cuba by imposing sanctions against overseas companies deemed to be using or profiting from property confiscated by the Cuban government after the 1959 revolution.

"It is obviously a result which pits the United States against the whole world. It is also legally unacceptable from the point of view of international law," said Jose Angel Gurria, Mexico's foreign minister.

Mexican cement giant Cemex and the Domos Group, which has invested over a billion dollars to redo Cuba's decrepit telephone system, are reportedly among the companies singled out to be the first victims of the Helms-Burton Law.

Mexican business leaders vow to resist the law, designed to force companies to choose between doing business with Cuba or the United States, Mexico's largest trading partner.

"For Mexico, with its 3,000-kilometer border with the United States and a free trade agreement (NAFTA), there is no question what the choice would be," said Carlos Abascal of the Mexican Business Confederation. "But there is also no question about Mexico's sovereignty and the right to choose with whom to do business."

Mexico and Washington's other NAFTA partner, Canada, complain bitterly that the United States has no right to apply its laws outside of its own territory. "Everybody in the world is concerned because Cuba today, who tomorrow? It's a very dangerous precedent," Gurria said.

The Mexican government says it is studying every option to defend its companies from U.S. sanctions, including suing the United States through the World Trade Organization. Unfortunately for Mexico, Washington appears determined to impose its legislation no matter what the international courts and community think.

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Mexico bucks U.S. pressure to drop Cuba trade

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