LUXEMBOURG -- European Union foreign ministers said Tuesday they will press ahead with a legal challenge to U.S. legislation aimed at stamping out investment in Cuba, in a dispute that has soured trans-Atlantic relations.
The ministers from the 15 nations agreed to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based international trade arbiter, on Oct. 16.
The appeal to the trade group is the first of a series of measures that the EU plans to take against the United States in retaliation for the Helms-Burton Act. The act penalizes companies that use assets in Cuba confiscated from U.S. citizens under the Cuban Revolution.
EU officials said it was essential to make a stand against the ``extraterritorial reach'' of the Helms-Burton Act to head off similar legislation aimed at eliminating investment in the Iranian and Libyan oil industries.
The commission is likely to be joined by Canada and Mexico in opposing the United States before the World Trade Organization. The EU will ask the trade group to appoint a panel of three judges to rule on the case, unless a solution can be worked throug h negotiations.
If the panel rules against the United States, an appeal can be filed to an appeal board whose judgment would be binding. Other measures being considered by the EU include refusing U.S. executives access to EU nations, introducing legislation to ``ne utralize'' financial claims against EU companies in the U.S. and the creation of a ``watch-list'' of U.S. companies taking legal action against EU companies.
Title 3 of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. citizens to sue companies that use their former assets in Cuba, will go into effect Feb. 1. The United States has already implemented Title 4 of the act, which bars executives of companies that invest in Cuba and their families from entering the United States.
Among the companies identified by U.S. authorities as candidates for action under Title 4 of the act are Sherritt International, a Canadian mining company; Grupo Domos, a Mexican telephone company, and Stet SpA, an Italian telecommunications holding co mpany.
U.S. authorities said other companies, such as Sol Melia, a Spanish hotel operator with 1,700 rooms under management in Cuba, may also be affected by Title 4 of the act.
Helms-Burton has persuaded a number of companies to pull out of Cuba, including Occidental Hoteles and Paradores Nacionales, two Spanish hotel companies. ING Group, a Dutch bank, said it won't renew its financing of Cuba's sugar crop.
© 1996 The Miami Herald.