WASHINGTON/HAVANA – The Trump administration will allow lawsuits in U.S. courts for the first time against foreign companies that use properties confiscated by Communist-ruled Cuba since Fidel Castro’s revolution six decades ago, a senior U.S. official said yesterday.

The major policy shift, which will be announced today, could expose U.S., European and Canadian companies to legal action and deal a blow to Cuba’s efforts to attract more foreign investment. It is also another sign of Washington’s efforts to punish Havana over its support for Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro.

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, will explain today the administration’s decision in a speech in Miami and announce new sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, countries he has branded a “troika of tyranny,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is unclear, however, whether such property claims will be acceptable in U.S. courts. The European Union has already warned it could lodge a challenge with the World Trade Organization. “The extraterritorial application of the U.S. embargo is illegal, contrary to international law and I also consider it immoral,” EU ambassador to Cuba Alberto Navarro said in Havana.(Reuters)…[+]

A Kingston man who is accused of sexually assaulting his two six-year-old daughters was remanded for trial in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on May 24. The 36-year-old resident of a Kingston community is charged with 12 counts each of indecent assault and grievous sexual assault.

The date for the trial was scheduled yesterday when the accused appeared in court before Parish Judge Broderick Smith with his attorney Leon Palmer. According to allegations, the accused performed oral sex on his daughters on a number of different occasions when they went to visit him last year. In January the Centre For Investigation Of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse was called in by the children’s school and following an investigation the accused was arrested and charged. The accused has maintained that he is innocent.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Trinidad.  Judgment was delivered today by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the consolidated matters of Trinidad Cement Limited and Arawak Cement Limited vs. The State of Barbados, and Rock Hard Cement Limited vs. The State of Barbados and The Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The CCJ ruled that the regional tax payable on ‘other hydraulic cement’, imported by Rock Hard Cement from Portugal and Turkey, should be 5%. The case was in the CCJ’s Original Jurisdiction where the Court interprets the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

In 2001, CARICOM’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) granted Barbados an exemption, in respect of the regional Common External Tariff (CET) of 0-5%, so that the State could apply taxes of 60% to categories of cement described as ‘other hydraulic cement’. The regional tariff is intended to offer goods produced and distributed in the region an advantage over imported ones.  In 2015, Barbados decided to return to the CET and apply a 5% tax on the ‘other hydraulic cement’ imported by Rock Hard Cement Limited.

In its ruling, the Court decided that where COTED allowed a Member State to charge taxes higher than the regional tariff on the importation of good from outside the region, there was no need for the Member State to obtain approval from COTED to revert to the CET. However, in these circumstances, the Member State should give reasonable notice of its intention of returning to the regional tariff. The Court stated that this notice would ensure that regional businesses enjoy transparency, certainty, and predictability of tax structures. This was, according to the Court, “reflective of good administrative practices, preserved the sovereign autonomy of the Member State and ultimately enhanced the overall functioning of the CSME”…[+]