Pompeo said Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, also known as the Libertad Act, would be implemented in full effective May 2. He had already informed Congress of the decision, he said.
"Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement," Pompeo said in remarks at the State Department. "Implementing Title 3 in full means a chance at justice for Cuban Americans who have long sought relief from Fidel Castro and his lackeys seizing property without compensation."
The move comes as the Trump administration attempts to ratchet up the pressure on Nicolas Maduro's regime in Venezuela and countries that they see as sustaining it. National security adviser John Bolton is expected to address the decision further in remarks in Miami on Wednesday.
"The Cuban regime has for years has exported its tactics of intimidation, repression and violence. They've exported this to Venezuela in direct support of the former Maduro regime," Pompeo said.
Cuban officials have decried the increased sanctions on the communist-run island and offered to enter into negotiations to repay US companies for seized property.
The decision by the Trump administration to fully implement Title III is likely to be met with opposition from European nations and Canada, whose businesses have billions of dollars of investments in Cuba.
Federica Mogherini and Cecilia Malmstrom, two top EU officials involved with trade and foreign affairs, wrote to Pompeo last week and voiced their opposition to the move and threatened to launch a case with the World Trade Organization.
"We believe that the issue of outstanding US claims should not be conflated with the cause of furthering democracy and human rights in Cuba, or by our shared desire urgently to find a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis in Venezuela," the two EU officials wrote in a letter obtained by CNN. "We are fully invested to promote both of these objectives, and are convinced that the emergence of protracted judicial proceedings between US claimants and bona fide EU companies will not further them."
Kimberly Breier, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said Wednesday the US "has been in very deep and close contact with our allies in Europe and Canada and around the world as we consulted on this decision over the past several months."
Breier said there would be no exemptions to Wednesday's actions. She said that the US government has certified approximately eight billion dollars with interest in claims over confiscated property. She said the thousands of uncertified claims could be in the tens of billions of dollars.
"The European companies that are operating in Cuba will have nothing to worry about if they are not operating on property that was stolen from Americans post-revolution," she said.
"I think it's clear if you look in the macro-sense, we have broad agreement with our allies in Europe and Canada and around the world on the policy objective, which is to promote democracy in Cuba and to free the Cuban people from the tyranny that they live under," Breier said. "We are in broad agreement on this. Where we sometimes disagree is on the best way to achieve that."
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