ANTIGUA ASKS OTHER COUNTRIES TO PRESSURE US IN GAMBLING DISPUTE
Antigua and Barbuda has appealed to other WTO Members to help make it harder for the US to avoid complying with dispute rulings against Washington’s restrictions on foreign-based internet gambling.
WTO dispute panels and the Appellate Body have, in a series of decisions, agreed with Antigua’s complaint that the US’ multilateral commitments to liberalise its “recreational services” sector prevent it from legally shutting its borders to overseas-based internet gambling operators. The US has insisted that it would continue to maintain the barriers, prompting Antigua to question the efficacity of WTO dispute settlement for small economies.
In an unusual attempt to make the restrictions WTO-compliant, Washington on 4 May announced that it would use General Agreement on Trade in Services procedures to modify its multilateral liberalisation commitments to explicitly exclude internet gambling (see BRIDGES Weekly, 9 May 2007).
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