The World Trade Organization has awarded US$21m worth annually of compensatory
measures to Antigua and Barbuda in its fight against the USA over the country's
unilateral suspension of its WTO obligations in regard to on-line gaming.
The islands would be allowed, for instance, to disregard intellectual property
rules under TRIPS in order to sell US-generated content such as films and music
on the open market. But Antigua had asked for US$3.4bn in damages.
Mark Mendel, Antigua's lawyer, said in a conference call: “I am pleased
that the panel approved our ability to cross-retaliate by suspension of intellectual
property rights of United States business interests. That has only been done
once before and is, I believe, a very potent weapon.”
Antigua's Minister of Finance and the Economy, Dr Errol Cort, said: "Although
we are pleased that the extraordinary sanction of the suspension of intellectual
property right protection for US interests has been given to us - only the second
such authorisation in WTO history - we are disappointed by the portion of the
decision limiting our annual compensation to such a mere fraction of our industry's
lost revenues."
But he said that it was not Antigua's immediate intention to apply the sanctions;
it remained preferable for Antigua to reach a compromise solution with the US,
although it's not clear what that might be.
The office of the United States Trade Representative, never a good loser, said
sourly with a split infinitive that: "it would establish a harmful precedent
for a WTO Member to affirmatively authorize what would otherwise be considered
acts of piracy, counterfeiting, or other forms of IPR infringement."
The ruling by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body remains in place until the
US comes into conformity with the WTO's previous ruling, which the US rejected,
or until there is a mutually agreed settlement.
The compensation for Antigua followed hard on the heels of an agreed settlement
between the USA and other countries which had demanded compensation, when the
European Commission accepted a US offer of openings in other sectors as compensation.
"A bilateral agreement was signed in Geneva, which provides EU service
suppliers with new trade opportunities in the US postal and courier, research
and development, storage and warehouse sectors," said the Commission. "The
US also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector.
Canada and Japan have apparently also accepted similar US offers, and the office
of the USTR said it hoped that India, Costa Rica and Macau would fall in line
as well.
The deal between the EU and the US was probably cut in November when EU Trade
Commissioner Peter Mandelson visited Washington for meetings on "Transatlantic
Economic Cooperation."
Mandelson met US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Representative Barney
Frank (D-MA), who has been leading so far abortive efforts in the Congress to
modify the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed in 2006, which
prohibits the use of payment instruments by financial institutions to handle
the processing of any form of internet gambling that is illegal under US federal
or state law. It was this law which led to the collapse of many global gaming
operations.
Barney Frank introduced legislation into the House of Representatives in April
that would create an exemption to the ban on online gambling for properly licensed
operators, allowing Americans to lawfully bet online. The Internet Gambling
Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007 would establish a federal regulatory
and enforcement framework to license companies to accept bets and wagers online
from individuals in the US, to the extent permitted by individual states, Indian
tribes and sport leagues. All such licenses would include protections against
underage gambling, compulsive gambling, money laundering and fraud.
“The existing legislation is an inappropriate interference on the personal
freedom of Americans and this interference should be undone,” said. Rep. Frank,
who is Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
"I think Representative Frank takes a fair-minded, common sense approach to
this and we look forward to that being effective legislation," said Mandelson.
But the bill has floundered so far.
TAX-NEWS.COM
Free Tax-News Feed