Antigua gets sound support in gaming dispute

[clevfan]

Antigua gets sound support in gaming dispute

Thursday April 20 2006


ANTIGUA SUN
by Patricia Campbell


Caricom has come out strongly in support of Antigua & Barbuda's position in its WTO Internet gaming case, telling the US Trade Representative that the region is "dismayed" at America's failure to comply with the World Trade Organisation (WTO)'s ruling that it should remove restrictions on cross-border gaming.

The region has further called on the US to act as a responsible stakeholder in international trade.

The gaming issue was discussed at Tuesday's meeting of the Heads of Government of Caricom and, at the conclusion of that meeting, Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington noted that the issue continues to be of concern to the regional grouping.

"The meeting here decided that Caricom would continue to use all its best endeavours, diplomatic and otherwise, to pursue this matter," he said.

He noted that at a meeting earlier this month between Caricom trade ministers and United States Trade Representative Rob Portman in Washington, the Caricom representatives made a statement reflecting regional solidarity on the issue.

In an echo of an earlier statement made by Minister of Finance and the Economy Dr. Errol Cort, the trade ministers said their concern was compounded by pending legislation that would "further entrench what the WTO found to be the discriminatory nature of the United States' approach to cross-border gambling and betting services."

The strongly worded statement continued by challenging Portman for having "rebuffed every offer Antigua & Barbuda has made to engage the United States in an attempt to work out a reasonable resolution of this dispute.

"We welcome the fact that Antigua & Barbuda has offered to engage in co-regulation with the United States, to limit its gaming sector until the United States could observe and evaluate the effectiveness of its regulation, and has agreed to work with the US to ensure the safety of the services our providers offer to US consumers," it said.

The Caricom ministers stated that Antigua & Barbuda's gaming industry is highly regulated to ensure the integrity of its services, including laws to prevent underage gaming, money laundering and other criminal activities and called on the US to meet with Antigua & Barbuda and settle the dispute.