INTERFERING WITH U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY IN- Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations 44-837 CC U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1998 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-056095-0 COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman WILLIAM GOODLING, Pennsylvania STEVEN J. CHABOT, Ohio MARSHALL "MARK" SANFORD, South Carolina MATT SALMON, Arizona AMO HOUGHTON, New York TOM CAMPBELL, California JON FOX, Pennsylvania JOHN MCHUGH, New York LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina ROY BLUNT, Missouri JERRY MORAN, Kansas LEE HAMILTON, Indiana MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California KEVIN BRADY, Texas RICHARD J. GARON, Chief of Staff MICHAEL H. VAN DUSEN, Democratic Chief of Staff SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY AND TRADE ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairperson The Honorable Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Representative in Congress from Flor- INTERFERING WITH U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS: THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION CHALLENGE TO THE HELMS-BURTON LAW WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1997 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY AND TRADE, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:14 p.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (chair of the Subcommittee) presiding. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The hearing is called to order. I am going to enter a lengthier statement in the record but I will summarize what I was saying in that statement. For years, particularly in the last 12 months, the United States has had to endure severe criticism of U.S.-Cuba policy, not exactly from its enemies but rather from our own allies. The countries of the European Union (EU) seem to place a higher degree of emphasis on appeasing pariah States such as the Castro regime than on supporting the United States. They have used the international forum to attack U.S. policy toward the Castro regime as a means of securing a more favorable environment in Cuba which would render them substantial returns on their investment. This animosity within the European Commission (EC) seemed to climax when the U.S. Congress passed and the President signed into law the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996. The majority of the EC countries who did not condemn or respond with any sense of moral fortitude to the murder of four innocent civilians by the Castro Air Force, who did not demonstrate any indignation at the blatant violations of human rights and internal law, instead turned their anger toward the United States and specifically toward our Helms-Burton Law. Two months after the enactment of the law, the 50-member EC formally requested the establishment of a dispute panel objecting to what they termed the extraterritorial implications of the law and submitting their challenge under the 1995 Global Trade Agreement creating the World Trade Organization. Despite the waivers of Title III by President Clinton and despite the ongoing consultations led by Ambassador Stewart Eizenstat, the EU proceeded with its challenge and has refused to withdraw its request for a WTO dispute settlement body |