Europe chances clash with US over Cuba talks

Date: 05/10/1995

By Elizabeth Wise

JUST as US legislators are considering strengthening their economic embargo against Cuba, the European Union is embarking on a new period of closer cooperation with the one-time pariah of the Caribbean.

Aware of the threat to transatlantic relations, EU foreign ministers agreed this week to risk upsetting Washington and move ahead with talks aimed at formalising relations with Havana.

Agreeing that cooperation, not force, is the way to get Cuba to open its economy and reform its political structures, the ministers agreed to send a team of French, Spanish and Italian foreign ministry officials to Havana to begin exploratory talks. The troika, representing the past, present and future EU presidencies, will be accompanied by a representative of the European Commission, but no date has been set for the trip.

Working in Cuba's markets is not a controversial notion for Europeans. Most EU member states already have trade agreements and guaranteed investments in Cuba. Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have money in Cuban hotels; France is active in oil extraction; and Fiat and Mercedes Benz are there. The first foreign bank in Havana, ING, is Dutch. Britain's junior trade minister, Ian Taylor, has been to Havana twice recently.

The difficult part will be laying out the political framework. The EU must insist, as it does with every country it works with, on a number of human rights conditions. So far Cubans have rejected the notion that any foreigner can impose conditions.

The foreign ministers, however, have effectively said that Cuba's compliance with human rights demands would determine whether the Union goes through with its intention of working towards an economic and trade accord. The troika, they said, should gather Cuban views on what ministers called “necessary reforms, notably on the development of civil society, guarantees for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

In a joint statement issued after their meeting in Luxembourg on Monday (2 October), ministers said that they would hold a thorough debate on the results of this dialogue and “examine the possibility of opening negotiations”.

The prospect of official EU forays into Cuba provoked threatening words from Washington, with US State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns warning: “We would urge our European allies to think twice about normalising relations with one of the last great dictatorships in the world, a dinosaur from the communist era.”

For 33 years, the US has kept Cuba at bay with a stiff trade embargo. The EU move makes it harder to apply that embargo, Burns said, adding: “We will obviously have discussions with our allies about this issue.”

The EU is unlikely to give in to US demands. Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan told US Secretary of State Warren Christopher in March that if the bill in Congress to stiffen the embargo was adopted, “a negative spill-over into the overall transatlantic relationship appears unavoidable”.

Because the US embargo also sanctions countries doing business in Cuba, the EU feels its companies are threatened. In his letter, Brittan told Christopher that “the European Union would be bound to react to protect all its legitimate rights under the World Trade Organisation”.

The Commission sees Cuba as fertile ground for economic and political reform and cites its recent successes with Vietnam as proof for non-believers. The EU and Vietnam signed a cooperation accord in July after months of talks produced results in helping the country move towards a market economy. “It was the same quagmire in Vietnam,” said an aide to Manuel Marin, the Commissioner responsible for relations with Latin America. “Part of the regime wanted to open the economy and political system, while part did not. We cannot stay idle until both agree.”

More than a year ago, Marin told Cuban President Fidel Castro about EU progress in Vietnam. The aide said Castro and others “fear they'll be engulfed in a process they cannot stop”.

EU officials will see just how far Cubans want to go in leaving their socialist economy for a market economy. If they do want to move, Commission officials want to be there to make sure nothing stands in the way.

Carlos Alzugaray Treto, Cuba's ambassador to the EU, said his country wants to sign a trade accord with the Union and get on the same footing as all other Latin American and Caribbean nations. Barred from the US market, Cuban producers need European buyers. He said Havana was ready to discuss political principles such as human rights and democratic reform. “We are open to ideas the Union might have on how to protect citizens' rights, but what we won't accept is a quid pro quo or a condition. Democracy and human rights cannot be imposed from the outside. It has to grow from the inside.”