THE US State Department has banned senior executives and their families of a Canadian mining firm from entering the country because of its investment in Cuba. This is the first action taken under a controversial law which also allows foreign companies investing in Cuba to be sued in US courts.
Companies from EU countries are also going to be targeted under what is known as the Helms Burton law. The EU has been protesting vigorously against what it says is the "extra territorial" aspect of the law which President Clinton signed after two US civilian aircraft were shot down by the Cuban air force last February.
No Irish companies are believed to be involved in joint ventures with Cuban ones which would leave them liable to US sanctions.
Under the new measures, the head of the Canadian mining company, Sherritt International, and eight of his top executives, including two Britons, and their immediate families have been given six weeks notice of the ban on travel to the US. The ban will be lifted if the company ends its investment in Cuba.
The British government angrily dismissed the decision to ban Mr Rupert Pennant Rea, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, and Sir Patrick Sheehy, former chairman of British American Tobacco, as "wrong headed". The two men, who are on the board of Sherritt, received letters from the US government telling them they were to be excluded from the country.
Sherritt International has been operating a joint venture for two years with a Cuban state owned mining company which works a nickel mine expropriated from a New Orleans company, Moa Bay, soon after Dr Fidel Castro came to power in 1969.
The US law only applies to foreign companies which have invested in formerly American owned properties in Cuba which were expropriated.
The Canadian International Trade Department has described the US action as a "very retrograde step". There have been calls in Ottawa for Canadian tourists to boycott Florida if the sanctions are enforced.
A delegation of European Parliament members in Washington this week has issued a statement saying they will be seeking "tough EU retaliation" against the US if action is taken against European companies. Some Italian and Spanish companies are expected to be acted against.
On Monday, President Clinton has to decide whether to implement the section of the Helms Burton Bill allowing law suits in US courts against foreign companies investing in Cuban ventures formerly owned by US citizens.
If Mr Clinton does not sign a waiver the measure will enter into effect.
Another Bill going through Congress as part of the fight against international terrorism would allow the US to take sanctions against foreign companies investing in petroleum and chemical sectors in Iran and Libya. This is also expected to arouse international protests.