Tuesday April 17 2007 ANTIGUA SUN

[grandmaster]

WTO expects US to implement Internet gaming ruling

Tuesday April 17 2007
ANTIGUA SUN



Director-General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, speaking to a closed session of a meeting with Caricom Ministers of Trade last week, observed that the preservation of the rules-based multilateral trading system on which the WTO is based, would ensure that, over time, the US would move to implement the rulings and recommendations of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).

Responding to a question from Antigua & Barbuda’s Minister of Finance and the Economy, Dr. Errol Cort, who wanted to know how the WTO intended to ensure that the rights of its smallest members were treated in the same manner as its largest, Lamy opined that it was in the best interest of the major trading nations of the world to ensure that the organs of the WTO were seen as fully functional and, in the case of its dispute settlement system, that its rulings and recommendations were respected and fully implemented.

Lamy also noted that, in his view the US had unfailingly implemented the rulings and recommendations of the DSB in all instances, even in those cases where such rulings had gone against it. This, he noted, was incumbent upon all WTO members if for no other reason but to ensure the integrity of the organisation’s institutions.

Meanwhile, Reuters news service has reported that the Chairman of the US Congress Financial Services Committee, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, planned to introduce a bill within the next two weeks to end a ban imposed last year on online gambling in the United States.

The bill in question, which would face an uphill battle, is intended to repeal the ban on the use of credit cards. According to the legislation that was signed into law by President Bush last year, credit card firms are forbidden from taking money for bets on online sites.

“We will be keeping a close watch on developments surrounding the anticipated introduction of the Frank Bill, on which we anticipate that there will be no major progress in the near term,” Minister Cort stated.

“However, my government is of the view that it is a step in the right direction, given that the current law has had a deleterious effect of online gaming everywhere to the point where the European Union’s Internal Market Chief, Charlie McCreevy, has hinted that he may challenge the ban at the WTO,” he added.

The meeting in Jamaica between Caricom trade ministers and the director-general of the WTO was also attended by Permanent Representative to the WTO Ambassador Dr. John Ashe, Permanent Secretary Ambassador Colin Murdoch and Trade Co-ordinator Ambassador Dr. Clarence Henry