U.S. CONGRESSMAN WANTS DETAILS ON THE WTO SETTLEMENT

14 March 2008

Oregon politician calls for support in demanding full details of America's concessions


US politicians appear to be increasingly disturbed over the lack of detail on US deals with other World Trade Organisation members following its unilateral withdrawal of gambling from the original US WTO agreement. This week Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio requested that the US Trade Representative come clean on trade concessions made to foreign trading partners without Congressional approval.

DeFazio's inquiry raises the possibility of Congressional intervention to void new market access commitments granted by the USTR to the European Union and other complainants as compensation for the much publicised United States trade violation at the WTO regarding Internet gambling (see previous InfoPowa reports).

And Congressman DeFazio went further, communicating with other members of Congress this week and encouraging them to join him in calling for the USTR to provide a copy of the concession agreement between the United States and the 27 nation European Union which agreed a deal with the USTR last year.

DeFazio, and all representatives of the American people are right to be concerned; the US Trade Representative has recently rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for details of its deal with the EU, claiming the agreement was classified for national security reasons!

"There is a concern that the USTR may have been ambitious in its use of a 'national security' classification to avoid any publicity of which new business sectors are to be subject to the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) treaty," said DeFazio in a letter dated March 6 2008.

"The issue will be whether the USTR abused its authority by granting new market access to the EU without first securing the consent of the trade committees in Congress," said Nao Matsukata, formerly Director of Policy Planning for USTR Robert Zoellick and now a Senior Advisor for Alston & Bird, LLP.

"Ultimately, this could invalidate the deal with the EU and cause various WTO Members to revisit the issue of fair compensation from the United States."

DeFazio's acivities come in a week where the European Union, under pressure from EU gambling companies badly hit by discriminatory US anti-online gambling laws, is to open an investigation into US legislative activities that may constitute trade agreement violations (see previous InfoPowa report). The European Commission is to run the investigation, which could take between 5 and 7 months.

The investigation is the result of a Trade Barriers Regulation complaint filed by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), which represents the largest remote gambling companies in Europe.

The RGA claims the U.S. is in violation of international trade law by threatening and pursuing criminal prosecutions, forfeitures and other enforcement actions against foreign Internet gaming operators, while allowing domestic U.S. online gaming operators, primarily horse betting and lotteries, to flourish.

After the investigation, the EU could pursue discussions with the U.S. to find an appropriate solution to end the discrimination.

If the parties cannot settle the matter themselves, the EU could bring a case against the U.S. to the WTO.

Meanwhile, the Central American country of Costa Rica has reached a settlement with the United States Trade Representative as an affected party in the WTO judgment received by Antigua and Barbuda at the expense of the United States. Antigua was given authority to circumvent it's own WTO trade obligations with the US to the tune of $21 million annually.

Costa Rican media reported this week that Costa Rica's Exterior Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz had accepted a settlement that maintains the online gambling restrictions of its gigantic American neighbour but opens up other [and again undetailed] WTO markets and opportunities in research and development, warehousing, testing and technical analysis and certain postal and courier services.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa