The International Claims Registry must be consulted before a government or its agencies provide commercial assistance or other support to any investment. The Registry will be open to all U.S. citizens who believe their properties have been expropriated in contravention of international law. Viewed in its entirety, the Understanding will have a profound impact on the decisions of potential investors. Investing in a country subject to a special stringent filter, such as Cuba, or in an individual expropriated properties would involve risks that prudent investors will judge to be unacceptable. Boards of directors and CEOs will exercise extreme caution in assessing any investment made in defiance of their government's policy, especially knowing that they will not get help from their government when disputes arise.
Similar considerations are likely to discourage private sources of financing for such investments.
We should also keep in mind that these new disciplines would ban investments in property illegally expropriated in the future. This is precisely the kind of protection for U.S. property rights sought by many for so long. It would be a unique protection of U.S. property rights worldwide. Highlight to potential investors the serious risk that any investment in Cuba could turn out to involve expropriated property. Proclaim the strong disapproval by the United States and the European Union of investments in illegally expropriated property.