BY NAOMI CRAINE
Officials of the European Union (EU) and Washington reached an agreement "in principle" aimed at heading off a clash in the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the misnamed Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, or Helms-Burton law, which U.S. president William Clinton signed last year. The law, which tightens Washington's economic embargo on Cuba, includes provisions penalizing companies in third countries that "traffic" in property expropriated by the Cuban workers and peasants after their 1959 revolution.

Capitalist governments in Europe and elsewhere have objected to these aspects of the act as a violation of their sovereignty. The EU had brought a complaint against Washington in the WTO over the matter. Under the agreement, which must still be ratified by the 15 EU governments and the U.S. Congress, the EU would suspend its complaint in return for a pledge by Washington to limit the extraterritorial provisions in the law, including those denying U.S. entry visas to executives of companies that do business in Cuba.

"This was as good as could be got given the U.S. situation," one unnamed EU diplomat was quoted as saying by the Financial Times. "But that doesn't mean that we are happy or that we no longer think that Helms-Burton is a problem."  
 
 
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