WTO decision on Internet gambling

[M.B.E.]

The actual decision of the WTO dispute panel, finding against the U.S. government, has not been made public. However, Antiguan officials have confirmed that the dispute panel recommended that the WTO ask the U.S. to bring certain measures into conformity with its obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (newspaper article from Antigua Sun).

The New York Times and other media have also reported on this, and there has been lots of discussion on Slashdot.

Certain official WTO documents about the dispute (DS285) are available here (but not the panel decision itself yet).

The legal arguments made by Antigua to the panel are available here.

The responding arguments from the U.S. Trade Representative are available here (scroll down to DS285).

The European Communities was a third party to the dispute, and its submission (in pdf format) is here.

[AceHigh]

Great news for online poker players. I wonder if paypal will get back in the funding of online gambling site business.

[whiskeytown]

I posted on this in Slashdot.org and in the internet forum

the problem is the U.S. only listens to the WTO when it's profitable for them to...

highly unlikely anyone against internet gambling is gonna give a rats ass what the WTO thinks -

RB

[AceHigh]

The Bush administration caved on the Steel Tariffs. If the WTO imposes sanctions that hurt, the U. S. will have to cave again.

A lot of these congressmen who make these speeches just like to apeal to there voters. The White House has to be more reasonable than individual congreessmen.

[M.B.E.]

Seems to me that a lot of Antigua's complaint centred around the legislation of certain states. At international law, the U.S. government is responsible for any actions taken by subunits like states, even though under its domestic law the federal government has no control over state legislation. If the decision of the WTO dispute panel is upheld by the WTO Appellate Body, I imagine the federal government will have to negotiate with each state to amend any of its laws found to be contrary to the U.S.'s international-law obligations under GATS.

[Zele]

[ QUOTE ]
the problem is the U.S. only listens to the WTO when it's profitable for them to...


[/ QUOTE ]

I would change this to read "the U.S. protectionist establishment only listens to the WTO when it is profitable, in the short term, for them to..."

Trade is profitable for everyone. I don't mean to nitpick, but I think a big problem with the free trade debate is that even most trade advocates portray opening markets as a sacrifice. Even unilateral trade-barrier lifting is good for all parties.