Is this really any different than Antigua legalizing cocaine and then shipping it to the US through internet orders
Surely you jest Don.
My biggest problem with the U.S. is they claim to be the spearhead for free trade, and almost demand other countries to open their borders to American goods yet when cases go against them they use every dirty tactic to try and get out of it. I still recall well when they banned Canadian beef because of the mad cow scare but when it was deemed the infected cow was actually from an American farm and the FDA ruled Canadian beef safe they still refused to open the borders back up to Canadian beef because U.S. Beef farmers said that the Canadian industry was forcing their prices down even though that was never the reason they apparently closed the markets in the first place.
Plus of course the WTO ruled numerous times in Canada's favour over the issue of softwood lumber yet the U.S. basicall told the WTO to go fuck themselves and said they didn't agree with the decision so wouldn't abide by it and continued to tax Canadian lumber. Eventually they got a U.S. friendly government in Canada who cut a lesser deal than the WTO's decision demanded.
Mind you they sure in hell expect Canada to provide open up the markets to them for oil, fresh water and other goods because "Canada made a commitment to do so."
Cocaine is illegal everywhere, gambling isn't. The U.S. had the opportunity of withdrawing gambling from its commitments when it signed it and chose not to do so. And the claim it was an error is pure bullshit. Many other countries withdrew that commitment while the U.S. left it in and all countries were discussing it including the United States. My hunch is that the U.S. figured at some point they could be a leader in providing cross border gambling services but when the current Republican government's meal ticket (i.e. the religious right) protested, they recanted.
Here's a better analogy IMO. Say China decided that it no longer wanted Chinese people eating fast food because they all of a sudden deemed it unhealthy even though they agreed to allow American fast food companies to operate in China and provided a commitment in the WTO to do so. Consequently they boot out McDonald's, KFC etc. and when the U.S. complains they say "tough, we erred by allowing them to operate in the first place and there ain't shit you can do about it."  |