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Antigua’s leader is seeking assistance from other nations to resolve the country’s protracted battle with the United States over online gambling rights.
This weekend saw Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne (pictured) travel to Venezuela to attend a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM), a group of 120 countries – many of them states in the developing world – not formally aligned with or against a major power bloc.
Caribbean360 quoted Browne urging NAM member states to offer Antigua “active solidarity” in bringing an end to the country’s
13-year World Trade Organization fight with the US over Antigua’s right to access the US online gambling market.
In 2003, Antigua launched a WTO claim over America’s refusal to allow Antigua-licensed online operators to access the US market.
In 2007, the WTO awarded Antigua an annual $21m in damages, but the US has so far refused to pay a single penny of this now over $200m tab.
Browne described his country’s David v. Goliath trade war with the US as a test case of whether
“small and micro-states can get justice when powerful nations refuse to cooperate.”
Under normal circumstances, Browne would be content to keep the dispute a bilateral matter, but his hand had been forced because “something is broken, and I call on all of us to fix it.”
SOURCE/ FULL STORY
This weekend saw Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne (pictured) travel to Venezuela to attend a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM), a group of 120 countries – many of them states in the developing world – not formally aligned with or against a major power bloc.
Caribbean360 quoted Browne urging NAM member states to offer Antigua “active solidarity” in bringing an end to the country’s
13-year World Trade Organization fight with the US over Antigua’s right to access the US online gambling market.
In 2003, Antigua launched a WTO claim over America’s refusal to allow Antigua-licensed online operators to access the US market.
In 2007, the WTO awarded Antigua an annual $21m in damages, but the US has so far refused to pay a single penny of this now over $200m tab.
Browne described his country’s David v. Goliath trade war with the US as a test case of whether
“small and micro-states can get justice when powerful nations refuse to cooperate.”
Under normal circumstances, Browne would be content to keep the dispute a bilateral matter, but his hand had been forced because “something is broken, and I call on all of us to fix it.”
SOURCE/ FULL STORY
