[DEBATE] : US urges Antigua to delay WTO sanctions on Internet gambling

[Riaz K Tayob]

US urges Antigua to delay WTO sanctions on Internet gambling
I-Net Bridge

24 December, 2007


The United States has urged Antigua to hold off on imposing sanctions 
authorized by the WTO in a dispute over online gambling

WASHINGTON - The United States Friday urged Antigua to hold off on 
imposing sanctions authorized by the WTO in a dispute over online 
gambling, saying Washington was revising its WTO commitments.

US Trade Representative (USTR) spokesman Sean Spicer advised Antigua to 
delay any action after an arbitrator for the Geneva-based World Trade 
Organization allowed the Caribbean nation to impose sanctions worth $21 
million a year.

Spicer said Washington has initiated a formal process at the WTO to 
revise its commitments and is in talks with Antigua and six other WTO 
members that have claimed to be affected.

"We would expect that Antigua would not suspend its WTO commitments to 
the United States while that process is underway.," Spicer said.

"Once the process of clarifying the US schedule of commitments is 
complete, any issues in our bilateral dispute with Antigua will be moot, 
and there will no longer be any basis for suspending WTO commitments."

The action marked the latest twist in a dispute with Antigua and 
Barbuda, a tiny Caribbean nation that complained in 2003 that the US ban 
on Internet gambling violated WTO rules.

Antigua has prevailed in its bid at the WTO to have the US ban declared 
improper. But US officials said earlier this year that Washington was 
not bound to change its laws to open its borders to the Internet 
gambling industry because of an "oversight" in a decade-old trade agreement.

Antigua had asked for sanctions worth 3.44 billion dollars, while 
Washington argued this was "patently excessive" and more than three 
times the size of the Antiguan economy.

Antigua, with a population of about 70,000, is a centre for offshore 
Internet gaming operations and attracts large numbers of US residents to 
its online casino-style games and betting services.

US officials announced in May they were submitting documents to clarify 
Washington's commitments. They cited a lack of clarity in the 1993-1994 
negotiations under the Uruguay Round of international trade talks that 
led to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Services (GATS), which took 
effect in 1995.

On Monday, US officials said Washington would widen access to some of 
its services to compensate the European Union, Japan and Canada to 
settle the WTO dispute on Internet gambling with those members.

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