Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I announced today on behalf of the government our response to the Helms-Burton legislation.
We are attempting to protect Canadian sovereign interests, foreign policy, trade policy and the legal operations of Canadian businesses in Cuba. We have proposed amendments to the foreign extraterritorial measures act that would block any attempt by a company in a foreign country to carry out a court order within Canada on an objectionable piece of legislation like Helms-Burton. We have provided for a clawback provision that they can recover within Canada moneys and assets lost in the United States on such an action. Finally, the penalties have been increased for companies that follow the law of a foreign country as opposed to the law of this country.
We hope that this will act as an effective deterrent to prevent the kind of operations, the kind of court action which is envisioned by the Helms-Burton bill in the United States, a unilateral action which we believe is wrong in principle, wrong in purpose and wrong in practice.
In addition, we will be continuing with an action under the North American Free Trade Agreement. We will continue with the NAFTA commission meeting.