Caribbean Times 29th Issue - Friday 4th November 2016
Caribbean Times 29th Issue - Friday 4th November 2016
Caribbean Times 29th Issue - Friday 4th November 2016
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6 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g<br />
<strong>Friday</strong> <strong>4th</strong> <strong>November</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
Internet Gaming: The US-<br />
Antigua and Barbuda contention<br />
For over 12 years, the governments<br />
of Antigua and Barbuda and the United<br />
States have been involved in a contention<br />
over an award by the World Trade<br />
Organisation in favour of Antigua and<br />
Barbuda over internet gaming.<br />
In March 2004, an Arbitration Panel<br />
set up by the World Trade Organisation<br />
(WTO) found that the US had<br />
violated its commitments under the<br />
General Agreement on Trade in Services<br />
(GATS) to allow cross-border<br />
access to its market for internet gaming.<br />
The adjudication by a WTO panel<br />
that Antigua and Barbuda has been<br />
deprived of trade revenues, was upheld<br />
three times by Appeal Tribunals.<br />
What now exists is a contention<br />
over a satisfactory compensatory proposal<br />
from the US that would cause<br />
Antigua and Barbuda not to implement<br />
the WTO award it has been<br />
granted. The award authorises Antigua<br />
and Barbuda to sell US copyrighted<br />
material without having to pay<br />
royalties/fees, up to a value of US$21<br />
million a year until the US offers a<br />
proposal, acceptable to Antigua and<br />
Barbuda, either to settle the matter or<br />
to allow access to its market for internet<br />
gaming.<br />
At any time that the Government<br />
of Antigua and Barbuda determines<br />
that the discussions it has been holding<br />
with the US Trade Representative’s<br />
Office (USTR) are fruitless, it<br />
can notify the WTO of its intention to<br />
implement the judgement and to market<br />
US intellectual property without<br />
copyright up to US$21 million a year.<br />
Antigua and Barbuda has both a<br />
moral and a legal right to compensation<br />
from the US. It is the US that<br />
has violated its international treaty<br />
obligations; not Antigua and Barbuda.<br />
Indeed, in 2003, the Antigua<br />
and Barbuda government, under then<br />
Prime Minister Lester Bird, entered<br />
good faith consultations with the US<br />
to rectify the loss of trade revenues<br />
and the damage to the economy. Only<br />
after the US declined to provide compensation<br />
did Antigua and Barbuda<br />
reluctantly ask the WTO to arbitrate<br />
the matter. Successor governments,<br />
led by former Prime Minister Baldwin<br />
Spencer and present Prime Minister<br />
Gaston Browne, have demonstrated<br />
great forbearance over the years since<br />
2004.<br />
The Moral Right<br />
With respect to the moral right,<br />
a tiny country with a population of<br />
less than 100,000 people and a GDP<br />
of US$1 billion has found itself at a<br />
trade disadvantage, damaging to its<br />
economy, because, for over 12 years,<br />
the US with a population of 350 million<br />
people and a GDP of US$17,947<br />
billion has not found it possible either<br />
to reach an acceptable settlement or to<br />
allow market access.<br />
In addition to not compensating<br />
Antigua and Barbuda for its significant<br />
loss of revenues, jobs and economic<br />
growth, the US has collected the sum<br />
of US$1,209,312,776.91 (US$1.2billion)<br />
in fines, forfeitures and seizures<br />
from persons and operators in Antigua<br />
and Barbuda up to 2015.<br />
The US has also benefitted from<br />
a surplus of trade in goods from<br />
Antigua and Barbuda over the period<br />
2004 to 2014 in the sum of<br />
US1,892,400,000.00 (US$1.89 billion).<br />
By Sir Ronald Sanders<br />
Adding the trade surplus in goods<br />
to the sum the US gained from penalties,<br />
seizures and fines imposed on internet<br />
gaming persons and businesses<br />
that operated in Antigua, the US gain<br />
over the period of this controversy is<br />
US$3 billion.<br />
Over eleven years (2003-2014) of<br />
the internet gaming impasse, US aid<br />
to Antigua and Barbuda amounted to<br />
US$8.5 million or an annual average of<br />
seven hundred and seventy-six thousand<br />
dollars (US$776,669.00). More<br />
than 90% of this money went to military<br />
training from the US Department<br />
of Defence, primarily for counter drug<br />
trafficking. When this sum is deducted<br />
from the US trade surplus with Antigua<br />
and Barbuda, the US still benefits<br />
by US$1.88 billion.<br />
The Legal Right<br />
Antigua and Barbuda is asserting a<br />
legal right awarded to it by the WTO,<br />
the competent legal authority, empowered<br />
by 164 nations of the world<br />
and recognised by treaty, to provide a<br />
cont’d on pg 7