The Helms-Burton Bill and Canada's Cuba Policy: Convergences with the US

This analysis reassesses Canada's Cuba policy by challenging the prevailing view that it has been largely independent of the US. The thesis posited here is that despite its opposition to the US' Helms-Burton legislation (which seeks to increase economic pressures on the Cuban economy by penalising foreigners who conduct business with the island) the Canadian government has been pursuing a Cuba strategy which closely converges with the Americans, and this has been particularly evident since the late 1990s. This argument is made through a discussion of the following themes: Canada's support for US hegemony; its shared interest with the US in protecting the global trading regime; its desire to defend its trading relationship with the US; its support for the US' position in the Organization of American States vis a vis Cuba; and its commercial competition with the US in Cuba.