WTO AWARD TO ANTIGUA FALLS WELL SHORT OF CLAIMS

28 December 2007

$21 million a year approved by global trade body


After years of negotiation and dispute over online gambling issues, and months of waiting for an outcome, the government of Antigua and Barbuda will likely be disappointed in the award of only $21 million a year in annual trade sanctions. The award was announced in Geneva today (Friday) by a World Trade Organisation arbitration panel following an Antigua claim for 3.4 billion, and a US response that it was worth only $500 000.

The two trading nations have been locked in a dispute over discriminatory online gambling practices which excluded Antigua from the lucrative American online gambling market. The tiny island nation successfully fought its giant adversary to a standstill, with WTO rulings going against the United States, leading to it withdrawing its gambling obligations from the international trade treaty rather than modify protectionist and discriminatory practices on Internet gambling.

The World Trade Organisation awarded Antigua and Barbuda the right to target U.S. services, copyrights and trademarks to a value of $21 million a year, which is unlikely to prove unduly worrisome to the vast US economy.

The decision is a definite setback for the Caribbean island nation, which claimed it had presented a factual and honest assessment of the value of its original claim. Washington acknowledged that its Internet gambling restrictions were ruled illegal by the WTO, but argued that Antigua should only be compensated for about $500 000 in annual lost revenue.

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