Cablegate: Ottawa's Charge Called to Meet Trade Minister

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001460

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON CU CA
SUBJECT: OTTAWA'S CHARGE CALLED TO MEET TRADE MINISTER
PETERSON OVER CUBAN ASSETS CONTROL REGULATIONS

REF: 04 OTTAWA 0366

1. (SBU) On May 12, Charge John Dickson met with
International Trade Minister Peterson at the Minister's
request to discuss U.S. designation of Caribe Sol and Hola
Sun as Specially Designated Nationals under the Cuban Assets
Control Regulations (comment: Minister Peterson also
included Internet Cubaweb Communications as an affected
company, although our information is that ICC has not been
designated as an SDN. End comment.) Minister Peterson made
a low-key pitch on the issue, asking if we could explore the
possibility of "doing something to help three little Canadian
companies who face bankruptcy." Apparently, the companies
had been processing their credit-card payments through the
Bank of Nova Scotia, which subcontracted to Paymentech
Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S. firm; following the Treasury
designation, Paymentech stopped processing the payments.
ITCAN officials did not know whether the firms actually had
assets frozen or had just been denied service; apparently
they are currently suing the Bank of Nova Scotia for breach
of contract.

2. (SBU) In response, the Charge promised to relay Canadian
concerns to Washington, but pointed out that under the Cuban
Assets Control Regulations, overseas subsidiaries of U.S.
companies (such as Paymentech Canada) are prohibited from
dealing with any specially designated national of Cuba. We
do not know whether the two designated companies have
appealed their designation.

3. (SBU) Once Minister Peterson's office provides further
details, we will pass this information to the Cuba desk and
WHA/L.

Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa

DICKSON

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