Antigua and Barbuda Seek $3.44 Billion Per Year From US

Right at the WTO deadline and a day after the EU expressed their desire for compensation from the US over their illegal Internet gambling ban, Antigua and Barbuda claimed today it is entitled to $3.44 billion a year in compensation from the US until the US complies with the WTO ruling.

The compensation would be in the form of Antigua withdrawing intellectual property protection for U.S. trademarks, patents and industrial designs, the government said in an official statement.

"We feel we have no other choice in the matter, we have fought long and hard for fair access to the U.S. market and have won at every single stage of the WTO process," said Errol Cort, Antigua's finance minister. "This industry can be regulated," he said, noting that the dispute is not a moral issue.

The U.S. lost an appeal against earlier WTO decisions, which found the U.S. ban illegal. On May 4, the U.S. moved to "clarify its commitments to the Geneva-based trade arbiter, saying it "never intended" to open its market to offshore Internet gambling when it made pledges on joining the WTO in 1994.

"Until such time as the United States is willing to work with us on achieving a solution to this trade dispute, we will continue to use every legitimate remedy available to protect the interests of our citizens," stated Cort.

The Antigua Government estimates that Americans spend $10 billion a year in online bets, and that its win at the WTO gives it the right to recoup losses.

Antigua is the smallest nation ever to take a case to the WTO. It has won its arguments that the U.S. has violated Trade agreements made in 1994 between the 150 member countries. A country with 80,000 residents, its tourism trade devastated in the 1990s, multiple hurricanes flattened a good portion of its casino industry, improvised and modified its laws to allow electronic gambling. Thus allowing tax and licensing revenues to supplement it losses.

At the time of the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), a treaty of the World Trade Organization, signed by member countries and became effective in 1995, countries had the ability to exclude and/or limit commerce it did not want to have included, or deemed it morally wrong for them.

The United States did not exclude gambling when it had the opportunity to do so. Given the depth of this agreement, one is hard tasked to believe this was purely an oversight.

Antigua has been successful in its argument at the WTO that the U.S. violated its agreement regarding online gambling. The U.S. allows domestic online gambling via horse racing and Lotteries. The WTO ruled that what the U.S. has done by passing the UIGEA is nothing short of protectionism since their argument was that it is protecting morals by disallowing this type of international commerce, yet allowing it domestically disproves that argument.

June 20, 2007
Posted By Susan Torres
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!

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