Antigua officials have charged before the World Trade Association that as a small nation, they can be ignored by large countries like the U.S., which seem to make their own international rules.
Antigua has been trying to get the United States to observe WTO rulings stemming from a decade-long dispute with the U.S. over Antigua’s online gambling sites. Representatives from Dominica recently read a statement on behalf of Antigua and Barbuda at the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body expressing their frustration with the U.S.
Antigua initially filed a WTO complaint over U.S. efforts to stop online gambling sites licensed in Antigua from serving U.S. customers more than 10 years ago. The WTO upheld the country’s complaint.
The WTO then ruled in 2006 that the U.S. owed Antigua $21 million in annual damages, but the U.S. has made no move to pay the damages, now totaling about $150 million.
The WTO then allowed Antigua to collect the damages by other means, including offering royalty-free downloads of US intellectual property such as films, TV shows and music files. Antigua, however, has not exercised that option, calling it an option of last resort.
Antigua’s statement said “this prolonged action by one of the weakest against the strongest” leads to the impression that might makes right in world trade disputes. It also makes the WTO “a vehicle by which the strong economies could extract concessions from the weak while at the same time effectively stone-walling – no, in fairness, denying – the ability of small economies to obtain any meaningful recourse when wronged by others.”
Antigua has had several negotiating sessions with the U.S., but received no serious proposal to solve the issue, the statement said.
“The major economies of the world do not have to face the same fears and uncertainties when they—as they have indeed done—make their own recourse to such remedies.”
